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01-17-2007, 05:39 PM
Lukashenko demonstrates his successor to Moscow
At the height of the oil and gas crisis, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko placed his son Viktor on the republic's Security Council. The Belarusian opposition fears he may be the future successor to the president, and experts do not rule out that Viktor Lukashenko's promotion is a demonstrative action organized specially for Russia.
The text of Decree No. 3, which the head of state signed on January 5, was posted on the website of the Belarus National Legal Information Center on Wednesday. The Security Council, which used to include mainly power ministers, will now have Viktor Lukashenko, the oldest son of the president, who until now had served as one of the president's many assistants.
Earlier Viktor served in border troops, and worked in the Foreign Ministry and at the Agat state military research and production association. Lukashenko Sr. has always claimed he has never pulled strings for his son. In February last year the president introduced, specially for his son, the position of presidential assistant for national security. Belarusian rights defenders claim that during the presidential election last March Viktor actively contributed to formulating a strategy for the forcible suppression of opposition protests.
In 2011, when Lukashenko's third term comes to an end, his son will turn 35. Belarusian law set this age as the minimum for a person to hold the country's highest position.
"Lukashenko trusts no one but his son," said Alexander Voitovich, former speaker of the upper house of the Belarusian parliament and Lukashenko's rival in the 2006 election campaign. "He seems to understand that his only lifeline is to hand over top state powers to his son." In Voitovich's view, this appointment deliberately coincided with the Russian-Belarusian oil and gas war, when many analysts saw Lukashenko Sr.'s grip on power weakening.
"I would not jump to conclusions, however," said Alexei Malashenko, deputy chairman of the Moscow Carnegie Center's learned council. "After all, Belarus is not like Central Asia or the South Caucasus." He does not imagine such a succession is possible "on the quasi-European space which, no matter what you do, includes Belarus." But he did not rule out that "perhaps the appointment was an occasion for Alexander Lukashenko to demonstrate to Russia that he had a successor, and that nothing will change in the longer term."
Vedomosti
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070112/58950501.html
At the height of the oil and gas crisis, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko placed his son Viktor on the republic's Security Council. The Belarusian opposition fears he may be the future successor to the president, and experts do not rule out that Viktor Lukashenko's promotion is a demonstrative action organized specially for Russia.
The text of Decree No. 3, which the head of state signed on January 5, was posted on the website of the Belarus National Legal Information Center on Wednesday. The Security Council, which used to include mainly power ministers, will now have Viktor Lukashenko, the oldest son of the president, who until now had served as one of the president's many assistants.
Earlier Viktor served in border troops, and worked in the Foreign Ministry and at the Agat state military research and production association. Lukashenko Sr. has always claimed he has never pulled strings for his son. In February last year the president introduced, specially for his son, the position of presidential assistant for national security. Belarusian rights defenders claim that during the presidential election last March Viktor actively contributed to formulating a strategy for the forcible suppression of opposition protests.
In 2011, when Lukashenko's third term comes to an end, his son will turn 35. Belarusian law set this age as the minimum for a person to hold the country's highest position.
"Lukashenko trusts no one but his son," said Alexander Voitovich, former speaker of the upper house of the Belarusian parliament and Lukashenko's rival in the 2006 election campaign. "He seems to understand that his only lifeline is to hand over top state powers to his son." In Voitovich's view, this appointment deliberately coincided with the Russian-Belarusian oil and gas war, when many analysts saw Lukashenko Sr.'s grip on power weakening.
"I would not jump to conclusions, however," said Alexei Malashenko, deputy chairman of the Moscow Carnegie Center's learned council. "After all, Belarus is not like Central Asia or the South Caucasus." He does not imagine such a succession is possible "on the quasi-European space which, no matter what you do, includes Belarus." But he did not rule out that "perhaps the appointment was an occasion for Alexander Lukashenko to demonstrate to Russia that he had a successor, and that nothing will change in the longer term."
Vedomosti
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070112/58950501.html