Andrei Kolesnikov about how Russian President Vladimir Putin participated in the CIS summit in Bishkek

On October 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin participated in the summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Bishkek. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov I am most impressed by what the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has done with the Russian language, as well as what he discovered in the famous CIS memorial sign on the neck of one of the presidents.

The CIS presidents gathered for their summit at the Ala-Archa residence in the rain at ten degrees Celsius compared to thirty degrees yesterday. To put it bluntly, they behaved differently. I would say they discovered themselves. Here, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, having risen almost to the very top, slipped on one of the steps of the porch and almost returned in the blink of an eye to the lowest point of the climb. But the amateur hockey player, accustomed to sliding, stood on the wet red carpet and continued moving towards the gate at the entrance to the hall, where the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov had long stood.

Everyone, it should be noted, took the umbrellas from the escorts and held them over themselves. All except Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, the youngest and seemingly the most athletic of his colleagues. He was ready to cope with difficulties: to lose his footing, to receive one portion of rain drops after another directly in his face with every gust of wind… All in order not to lose this famous Turkmen gloss, not to disfigure himself with a disproportionately large black umbrella. Or I just got used to it.

But the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, not such a young man, grabbed an umbrella from the person accompanying him, simply flew up the long, slippery, as we know, stairs and with a promising disarming smile literally burst into Mr. Japarov’s handshake. Hat trick.

And whoever says that all these details have nothing to do with what is happening will be irreparably mistaken.

The narrow meeting was held behind closed doors. However, the organizers of the Russian side obviously wanted to immediately make the Russian president’s speech a part of modern history, at least the history of the CIS, and showed a video.

Judging by what Mr. Putin said, all is certainly not well in the CIS.

“Some countries, which may still be part of the CIS today, do not work in this format,” said the Russian President. “With Georgia, it all started, as you know, after the unsuccessful attempts of the former President of Georgia (Mikheil Saakashvili.— A.K.) solve some internal problems through force and attacks on South Ossetia.

Another country was doomed from the start:

— Ukraine once signed the fundamental documents on the CIS, but in fact it never joined in full format! – Vladimir Putin exclaimed. – Ukraine has not ratified these documents. There was no ratification! She initially, in fact, avoided full-scale cooperation!

And look, as they say, how it all ends now.

“And a country like Moldova,” the Russian president shrugged, “is practically losing its identity!” The elites of this country generally believe that they are not Moldovans. They call themselves Romanians!

It sounded like “Ivans who do not remember their kinship.”

– But it’s their choice! – continued Vladimir Putin. – Complete loss of the country’s identity – this choice today the leadership of Moldova! But, I repeat, they want it that way. No one can stop this except the people of Moldova themselves… If there are people in this country who still consider themselves Moldovans!

Here one could see a general call for an uprising – at least in the presidential elections.

It is believed that those who are absent are not spoken of. But Mr. Putin was talking specifically about those who were absent.

And it became clear what he was leading to. He hasn’t finished talking about one of them yet.

“This is the choice of each of us,” added the Russian President. “Do we want to preserve our identity or not?” And working within the CIS gives us such an opportunity!

Vladimir Putin clearly hinted that we should stick to the CIS. Who was he hinting to? Most likely, the absent Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. Left the CIS and lost its identity.

Moreover, Mr. Putin made it clear that those present are in the same boat:

– We understand perfectly well, to be honest, we see that they are trying to put pressure on us all, if not to scare, intimidate, command someone… We see that the more brutal the attempt to put pressure on someone, the less success those who try achieve do it.

Those who are trying to put pressure, however, most likely do not think so.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is haunted by story in the Parliament of Canada. He returned to her now, in this cozy narrow circle, where everyone understood him, where everyone, clockwise, were his like-minded people, where for the second day they awarded each other orders and medals. Here Vladimir Putin could count on complete understanding. And this is where it wouldn’t be a sin to repeat:

— It was wild to see this terrible situation in the Canadian Parliament, when everyone stood up together and applauded the former Nazi, a soldier of the SS Galicia division! Well, this is just disgusting! Despite all that the speaker of parliament directly said that this man fought against the Russians during the Second World War. Don’t they know that the Nazis fought against the Russians? Hitler fought!.. They could not help but know that if he fought against the Russians, then he also fought against the Canadians, and theoretically one can imagine that he killed the Canadians too! Because Canada was part of the anti-Hitler coalition!.. But Alexander Grigoryevich (President of Belarus, Mr. Lukashenko.—) is right here. A.K.). To do this you need to know history!

Alexander Lukashenko could not help but contribute to the understanding of what happened. Certainly.

— The Speaker of Parliament said: the man fought during the war against the Russians. You need to know who fought against the Russians during the war! And to call him a hero of Canada and a hero of Ukraine… It’s simply nonsense! – finished the Russian President.

Vladimir Putin spoke not only about the past, but also about the future.

He is concerned about the upcoming Israeli operation in Gaza:

“You and I understand how it is, quite semi-professionally, so to speak, to use heavy equipment in residential areas. This is a complex matter with serious consequences for all parties. And without equipment in residential areas, it is even more difficult to carry out these operations! But most importantly, civilian casualties will be absolutely unacceptable! Almost 2 million people live there!

It was meant that the Israeli army would have big problems in any case, and his job was to warn him.

But the Israeli army is apparently choosing between two evils. And he obviously believes that not conducting ground operations is even worse than conducting them.

In addition, Mr. Putin made it clear that Russia is ready to become the coordinator of negotiations between Israel and Palestine, or more precisely, the Hamas movement.

Of course, Alexander Lukashenko did not remain silent either. This was, in turn, told by the Telegram channel “Pul of the First”. Although, it seems to me, it’s in vain. The video in some places threatens to become immortal.

– Why do we need these international courts?! – Alexander Lukashenko exclaimed, commenting on the discussion of the draft statement on interstate relations in a multipolar world. As it turned out, some misunderstanding arose between colleagues in the CIS when discussing the point in which it was proposed to express concern about the politicization of the activities of international courts.

“But even such a soft formulation was not supported by everyone!” — Alexander Lukashenko said with annoyance. “Apparently, this is (politicization.” A.K.) just hasn’t touched it yet! Someday you will want to help children, give them a little childhood, save them from bombings and explosions, and for this you will be put on the international wanted list,” Mr. Lukashenko said quite frankly.

The International Criminal Court’s warrant against Vladimir Putin excites his imagination.

In addition, Alexander Lukashenko talked a lot about the need to establish an international organization for the Russian language (this became one of the agreements signed following the meeting).

— We are developing the Russian language together! – said the President of Belarus. – There is also a part of Uzbeks, Azerbaijanis, Tajiks… Not only Russians and Belarusians (Belarusians, as always, stand apart, on a par with Russians, especially in this matter. Although they also have the Belarusian language. But invaluable Compared to Tajiks, they manage to make a contribution to Russian.— A.K.). Therefore, why are we losing the Russian language?!

The apotheosis happened later:

“Frankly speaking, I am pleased with the trend of the Central Asian republics…” added Alexander Lukashenko. “Emomali Sharipovich (in Tajikistan, its president Emomali Rahmon.— A.K.), in Kyrgyzstan, especially in Uzbekistan!.. New schools are appearing, new Russian-language universities are appearing, where they study the Russian language!

This is how they enter, unexpectedly for themselves, immortality.

Well, yes, that’s what he said. Well, it’s already happened, there’s nothing you can do. We must try to forget.

Finally, when the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev was awarded the honorary badge of the CIS, another heartbreaking thing happened story.

Alexander Lukashenko came up to congratulate the recipient and suddenly saw that one of the metal flags decorating the chain on which the badge of honor hangs was Ukrainian. It was outrageous. Shavkat Mirziyoyev was still smiling, but Alexander Lukashenko was not at all. He brought Vladimir Putin to the President of Uzbekistan and pointed out the incident to him. Just pointed a finger.

Well, there really is no Ukraine in the CIS chain. There shouldn’t be any signs of it. But here they are, metal fragments of the past. Not phantom pain. But they simply made more such badges of honor in their time. So what now, don’t reward it, or what? Until all these signs end, there will be no others. Not four hands.

Yes, this is a sign.

Andrey Kolesnikov, Bishkek