Andrei Yahorau: Belarus copies a “Big Brother” role

Belarusan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has borrowed the idea about the report on the situation with human rights in the Western countries from their Russian colleagues.

 This declaration in the talk with the EuroBelarus Information Service uttered the director of the independent think-tank Centre for European Transformation, political scientist Andrei Yahorau.

Andrei Yahorau noted that the publication of such report is the usual move typical of Soviet times meaning that the West has to look at itself first.

“It hasn’t been invented by the local ideologists; it is rather an adoption of “Big Brother” behavior, - believes the political scientist. – As not so long ago Russia has published a similar report on human rights situation in the USA and the European Union countries”.

The expert noted that our report came to be worse than the Russian one because we are poor.

According to him, the fact that Belarus made a follow-up of the Russian initiative “indicates the general cynicism that new Eurasian space sets in relation to Europe and other countries where all human rights are observed”. In public relations Eurasian authoritarian countries are trying to be an equal center that is authorized to define the development of human rights in different countries.

And as Andrei Yahorau noted, in order to give an evaluation of the situation with the human rights absolutely different grounds and principles are suggested. Whereas in the Western countries the estimation is based on the reports of the human rights organizations and competent international structures such as OSCE, European Court of Human Rights or the UN Human Rights Committee that make judgments on the basis of many facts.

“And in relation to Belarus, Russia and other authoritarian countries these estimations are rather weighty and warrantable, not some accidental cases of human rights violations which, of course, can be found everywhere”, - highlighted the interlocutor.  

But on the side of manipulation with the public conscience reports made by Russia and Belarus seem to be equal to those prepared by the international structures. “A person who doesn’t put any effort to examine the basis for different reports can be easily caught on this manipulation”, - notified Andrei Yahorau.

In the context of the expected activation of relations between Belarus and the European Union the actions of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be viewed in terms of “ logic of saving face, keeping an independent position and non-compliance with the demands from the West” typical of the official Minsk, assumes the political scientist.

“That is why if later on Belarusan authorities come to meet the conditions put forward by the European Union, then they will maintain their reputation demonstrating such steps”, assumed Andrei Yahorau.