Latvian commentator Marats Kasems posted a Twitter/X thread on 2026-11-05 describing and criticizing a short interaction between former Latvian MEP Andrejs Mamikins and Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenko during a public event in Minsk. According to Kasems, Belarusian state media linked to the "potato regime" helped Mamikins obtain access to the event where Lukashenko was speaking, but Mamikins then approached Lukashenko on his own to secure about 30 seconds of direct conversation and a joint photo. In this exchange, as portrayed by Kasems, Mamikins briefly recounted his biography to Lukashenko, emphasizing his service in the European Parliament as the most significant item in his CV, and repeatedly thanked him, behaving "like a little dog" and "like a robot" without stopping. Kasems says Lukashenko expressed support for Mamikins, citing a KGB-style phrase that there are no former deputies, and asserted that Minsk is not at war with Latvia. Kasems contrasts this statement with ongoing Belarusian-organized pressure on Latvia’s border via flows of illegal migrants from Asia, describing this as years of Minsk pushing migrant crowds to the Latvian border and calling Lukashenko a hypocrite and scoundrel. The thread frames Mamikins’s conduct as voluntary humiliation before a dictator who endangers Latvia and uses weaponized migration, and labels his behavior as activity directed against Latvia. Kasems also notes that other Latvia-linked propagandists, such as Stefanovs and Samuļs, will likely envy Mamikins’s access to Lukashenko, and that another Latvian political figure, Rosļikovs, was in Moscow at the same time and also desired such access, with security services ("čekisti") allegedly operating under a divide-and-rule principle by giving this opportunity only to Mamikins. Kasems characterizes Lukashenko as someone who has always tried to balance between the West and the Kremlin and says this event is another instance of him sending signals to Europe that he can be bargained with. He further comments that as long as there is a high proportion of "vatņiki" (a derogatory term for pro-Russian sympathizers) in Latvia and a propaganda center in the Kremlin influencing a specific ethnic group, politicians like Mamikins will continue to be elected from Latvia, and argues that such individuals move to Belarus or Russia partly because the Latvian state has made it less safe to be an overt "vatņik". Kasems also notes that Mamikins’s public posture on social media as someone who allegedly confronts "fascists" contrasts with his deferential behavior before Lukashenko, and suggests Mamikins has no real prospects in Belarus despite his obsequiousness.

Latvian commentator Marats Kasems posted a Twitter/X thread on 2026-11-05 describing and criticizing a short interaction between former Latvian MEP Andrejs Mamikins and Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenko during a public event in Minsk. According to Kasems, Belarusian state media linked to the "potato regime" helped Mamikins obtain access to the event where Lukashenko was speaking, but Mamikins then approached Lukashenko on his own to secure about 30 seconds of direct conversation and a joint photo. In this exchange, as portrayed by Kasems, Mamikins briefly recounted his biography to Lukashenko, emphasizing his service in the European Parliament as the most significant item in his CV, and repeatedly thanked him, behaving "like a little dog" and "like a robot" without stopping. Kasems says Lukashenko expressed support for Mamikins, citing a KGB-style phrase that there are no former deputies, and asserted that Minsk is not at war with Latvia. Kasems contrasts this statement with ongoing Belarusian-organized pressure on Latvia’s border via flows of illegal migrants from Asia, describing this as years of Minsk pushing migrant crowds to the Latvian border and calling Lukashenko a hypocrite and scoundrel. The thread frames Mamikins’s conduct as voluntary humiliation before a dictator who endangers Latvia and uses weaponized migration, and labels his behavior as activity directed against Latvia. Kasems also notes that other Latvia-linked propagandists, such as Stefanovs and Samuļs, will likely envy Mamikins’s access to Lukashenko, and that another Latvian political figure, Rosļikovs, was in Moscow at the same time and also desired such access, with security services ("čekisti") allegedly operating under a divide-and-rule principle by giving this opportunity only to Mamikins. Kasems characterizes Lukashenko as someone who has always tried to balance between the West and the Kremlin and says this event is another instance of him sending signals to Europe that he can be bargained with. He further comments that as long as there is a high proportion of "vatņiki" (a derogatory term for pro-Russian sympathizers) in Latvia and a propaganda center in the Kremlin influencing a specific ethnic group, politicians like Mamikins will continue to be elected from Latvia, and argues that such individuals move to Belarus or Russia partly because the Latvian state has made it less safe to be an overt "vatņik". Kasems also notes that Mamikins’s public posture on social media as someone who allegedly confronts "fascists" contrasts with his deferential behavior before Lukashenko, and suggests Mamikins has no real prospects in Belarus despite his obsequiousness.