Some important takeaways, observations, and inside details from the meeting between Lukashenka and @generalkellogg

Thread 🧵 The meeting began on the evening of June 20 and lasted over 6 hours. Yet, news of the meeting for some reason was published only the next day (June 21).

The world has reached its most dangerous point for democracies in decades. What seemed impossible yesterday is now becoming the new normal today. If liberal democracies don’t unite for self-preservation, they risk disappearing sooner than we imagine.
Short and scary 🧵 below France and Germany are on the brink of far-right parties taking power.
The U.S. is growing skeptical of traditional democratic standards/practices domestically and its role in protecting NATO allies and democratic movements abroad.

An alleged audio recording of Lukashenka and Prigozhin (Wagner) during the mutiny in 2023 has surfaced on Russian Telegram. Here is a thread with the transcription of it.
*You can thank me by retweeting it*⬇️ Lukashenka: So, I haven’t spoken with him yet. His entire entourage is in chaos. They’re already pleading with me, asking for help: "Just a little more. Just a little more. Wait a moment. We’re almost there, almost there". You know the situation⤵️

@TheStudyofWar has recently published their analytical assessment of what happened to Prigozhin and what it means for Belarus and Lukashenka.

ISW is a popular and often quoted resource, but their analysis of Belarus raises too many questions. So let's dig in According to ISW (quotes from the Russian Offensive Campaign assesment, August 24, 2023):
1. "Lukashenka will likely remain silent on the matter to avoid provoking Putin and further risking his already vulnerable position"

understandingwar.org/backgrounder/r…

Many rumors surrounding the sudden disappearance of the Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. Of course, I don't know where he is or what is happening to him.
Instead I will share my impressions of our meeting and working together in 2015. He then headed the Protocol Department of the Foreign Ministry and came to Belarus as part of a delegation led by Xi Jinping. You can spot him in this picrure. Or us both in this video https://t.co/iQmQgMSYlD

Wild examples of RU propaganda narratives are often published here. But you have never seen quotes from the Belarusian TV.
This is unfair. RU propagandists look like sweet summer children against the backdrop of their BY colleagues.
A thread with translated quotes from the video This is Aliaksandr Lukashenka's favorite "journalist" - Grigory Azarenok. He works in Lukashenka's pool, follows him everywhere and even received a Wagner sledgehammer as a gift from him. Mr Azarenok is a laureate of Belarusian state awards in the field of journalism.

I know that many journalists and editors-in-chief follow me here. This short thread is for you.

Please remember that when you call Alexander Lukashenko the “President of Belarus” this is neither true, nor correct. And this misleads your reader. Some facts further… This is not my personal view or analytical assessment, but an official position of dozens of states. After rigged elections in 2020 the EU, its member states, USA, UK, Canada, NZ, Ukraine and many many other countries don’t recognize him as the legitimate president of Belarus

Exactly 8 years ago today Putin, Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko met in Minsk's Palace of Independence to negotiate ceasefire and peace in Ukraine after Russia's invasion in 2014.
I was BY diplomat then and worked with the UA delegation. Here is my thread about that night. Let's first add some context here. The Normandy format meeting in Minsk attracted enormous attention to Belarus that was gradually getting out of international isolation and surpisingly took a rather neutral stance on the war.

A few words about the resistance of Belarusians to the Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Thread. 1/ After 2020 and an unprecedented wave of repressions, several hundred thousand people have left Belarus. Thousands are in prison for political reasons (see the map)