There are no actions and events able to change political life of the country in the near future. The forecast was made by Uladzimir Matskevich, the Head of the Board of the International Consortium “EuroBelarus”.

It looks like after the politically uninteresting summer we step into similarly tedious autumn. However, can such event as Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius somehow enliven the situation in Belarus?

“Of course, external influence can affect the political processes,” Uladzimir Matskevich admitted: “But I’d rather expect that the EaP-initiated processes are going to slow down, if not completely be brought to a close.”

Speaking about the reasons for such an unfavorable forecast, the Head of the Board of “EuroBelarus” noted that “the tangle of relationship with Europe is so mixed up that it will take time to untie it. So even if Belarusan authorities are mature enough to move towards Europe, they’ll have to fulfill a lot of requirements delayed by the official Minsk. Perhaps, they’ll also have to undertake even more decisive actions in order to demonstrate the seriousness of changes in Belarusan politics. As over the last years these were mostly declarations nobody is going to believe anymore; while we what we need first are real steps. And I can’t say that I see the readiness for such steps.”

Is it possible that today’s conflict with Russia will make Belarusan authorities to take real steps towards Europe?

“For now I see no clear end of this conflict. The whole range of variants is possible here. Russia might acknowledge the criminal proceedings against Baumgertner and against Kerimov,” Uladzimir Matskevich noticed: “Putin might also start bargaining with Belarus and lowering the tension somehow. Or Russia can escalate this conflict in order to put Belarus in its place. However, I see no such intentions, as Moscow has enough problems beside this one now.”