US Deputy Secretary of state will visit Russia to prevent Russian military intervention in Belarus

On August 9, the results of the presidential election in Belarus triggered a sustained storm. In recent days, the United States, Europe, Russia and other parties have been paying close attention to the development and changes of the situation, and have expressed their respective views. On August 22, Reuters quoted two sources as saying that US Deputy Secretary of state Stephen biegun is going to visit Russia and Lithuania for talks on the issue of Belarus. According to the source, the US side’s move is to find a peaceful solution to the election turmoil in Belarus. More importantly, we should avoid the occurrence of Russian military intervention in the issue of Belarus, so that the scene that happened in Crimea in 2014 will not happen again. According to a Reuters report, U.S. Deputy Secretary of state Bigan’s visit plans in the next few days show that the United States is trying to make itself play a “greater role” in the election turmoil in Belarus. But at present, regarding Bigan’s trip, a state Department spokesman said: “there is no itinerary to announce for the time being.” However, a former senior U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said on the 21st that Bigan was expected to leave for Russian capital Moscow and Lithuanian capital Vilnius in the next few days. On August 9, Lukashenko won 80.1% of the vote and was elected president of Belarus for the sixth time. However, opposition parties were dissatisfied with the election results and demanded a re election, which led to riots in Belarus. On the 11th, the defeated opposition presidential candidate, sviatlana tsikhanouskaya, fled to neighboring Lithuania. Lithuanian President gitanas naus ė Da said on the 12th that Lithuania, together with Latvia and Poland, had drawn up a plan to mediate the crisis in Belarus and threatened to impose sanctions on it if the mediation mission failed, the Russian “opinion daily” reported on the 13th. On the 19th, the Lithuanian government announced that 32 senior Belarusian officials, including Lukashenko, were included in the list of prohibited immigrants. In view of this situation, both the United States and the European Union believe that there is “fraud” in the election. On the 19th, Charles Michel, President of the European Council, announced that the European Union would not recognize the election results of Belarus and would soon impose sanctions on a “significant number” of individuals involved in election fraud and protest in the country. On the 20th, US Secretary of state pompeio urged Belarusian president Lukashenko to accept the help of the international community and start negotiations with the opposition, and “implicitly” warned Russia not to intervene. According to Reuters, another source also said on the 21st that although he did not know what kind of message Bigan intended to convey during his visit, he believed that Bigan’s main purpose was “to prevent Russian intervention and prevent further violence in Belarus”. “I suspect that the U.S. government is trying to prevent Russia from intervening in this matter, or to prevent Russia from using its influence over Lukashenko to encourage it to go further,” the source said After the domestic tensions, Lukashenko intends to seek the help of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Reuters. On August 16, the Kremlin pointed out in a statement that Putin said in a telephone conversation with Lukashenko that Moscow was ready to provide military assistance if necessary. < p > < p > Reuters also quoted some experts’ views that the US side hopes to solve the current crisis situation in Belarus through dialogue and negotiation, because the current turbulent situation is not conducive to the US side. < / P > < p > in recent years, the United States has been hoping to use the delicate “tense relationship” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian president Lukashenko to try to win over Belarus. In February this year, US Secretary of state pompeio visited Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to hold talks on the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and Belarus. In addition, the tensions in Belarus will be a good opportunity for the United States and other European allies to “unite” again. Since the trump administration came into power, the United States has been very arrogant on issues such as the Iran nuclear agreement and NATO, which has made its allies very unhappy. Some experts also pointed out that the main appeal of the protestors in Belarus is not to establish closer relations with western countries, but to call for a new election and vote and respect for “human rights”. The US side has “strong interest” in this respect. Jonathan Katz, a former U.S. government official and an expert on Eastern Europe, said: “from the perspective of the United States, Belarus does have problems in terms of ‘human rights’ and’ Democracy ‘, but there are also relatively safe places, bordering the Baltic States and Poland.” He said that the United States does not want to give Putin an opportunity to intervene in the situation in Belarus by military means, just as Putin did in Ukraine in 2014, directly sending troops to recover Crimea. “Everyone is worried that Russia may take military action, and even if you don’t think that possibility exists, you can’t ignore it,” Katz said