Aliaksandr Lukashenka is hosting a meeting with Belarusian and foreign journalists on January, 29. The event is being held in the Palace of Independence in Minsk.
260 journalists representing 152 newspapers, 16 news agencies, 3 online media, 26 TV channels, 41 radio stations, including regional radio programs are taking part in the press conference. Belarusian regions are represented by 142 journalists.
Belsat.eu highlights the most interesting episodes of the conference (uncensored):
11:10 The U.S. model is unsustainable for us, and ‘the shocking therapy’ will result in Maidans. And what is the most important is that people will remain hungry. It is our model that is followed; they envy us!
11:15 We’ll come over this difficult situation. Today our main task is diversification. We should sit on several stools. By the moment ourvolumes of trade with the West has exceeded those with Russia.
11:40 Oranges, mandarines and other junk the we are importing has become more expensive. As for me, I don’t eat bananas. Buy them if you want.
11:52 (answering the question on the recent reshuffle of the Cabinet). The Heads of Cabinet do not grow on trees in any country. Yes, we seem to reshuffle our staff, but there is no staff scarcity in Belarus. I wish you knew how many candidates we’ve considered; there are different groupings. Everyone pushes their cater-cousins and insiders. Bit it is me who takes final decisions.
12:20 The head of state explained why the format of the meeting with reporters on 29 January had been changed. “I suggested an open dialogue instead of a press conference. I would like everyone present here to ask questions in order to speak their minds about this or that topic,” state-owned news agency BelTA qoutes him as saying.
At the same time, in spite of ‘the open format’ no one may leave the press conference until it comes to an end.
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Lukashenka does not rule out that Belarus may leave the Eurasian Economic Union if the agreements are broken.
According to him, Belarus has signed the EEU treaty with the reservation. “In essence it says that if the agreements we have reached will be respected, we will honor everything with regard to the EEU. If they are not respected, we reserve the right to withdraw from this union,” Lukashenka said.
12:20 On the Minsk agreements on the conflict in eastern Ukraine: “We are not going to bring any sides together. We were just asked about it. This war has come to us. We have to close the border. Refugees and their children are arriving … We don’t want to seek publicity over it. When two brothers, the eldest and the middle, are fighting the youngest brother cannot stay on the sidelines, but there is no need in putting fingers in the fire”.
12:44 God forbid that a war breaks out. But one shoul keep gunpowder dry. We are training our army for a conflict… But we’ll never give our land away to anyone. It is my task. Hundreds of thousands of people who look the same way are behind my back. And if one believes that Belarus is part of some “Russian world” – you will see it only in your dreams!
13:05 It is necessary to develop the production of modern weapons in Belarus. “We work hard to allow Belarus to have its own weapons. At present the bulk of the weapons used by our army are made in Russia. We only make some weapon components: electronics, optics, and some other ones. We have to have good weapons to discourage future aggressors from launching a war against Belarus. We will have such systems in several months,” Lukashenka said.
13:28 Manoeuvring between Russia and the EU. “Lukashenka is said to be flirting with the West. Why? Prove it! We have never groveled either at feet of the West or at those of the East. Someone just wants to scare us. And Russia is the first to make such statements. Of course, I can fall on my knees, but only when the matter touches my children and me.”
No claiming part of Russia’s land. “We just want to keep our territory. We have built a state on this land and we want our children and grandchildren to live here. This is my biggest dream. When they started bothering me with questions about Putin coming and seizing part of our territory, I responded jokingly that we have more grounds to claim Russia’s lands. However, in fact we do not claim any other territories,” Lukashenka said.
Maidan in Belarus. Those who think that a maidan-type revolution can happen in Belarus should get this idea out of their heads, Lukashenka said. “If someone has this crazy idea that maidan can or will happen in Belarus, the earlier he gets this out of his head, the better. Maidan will never happen in Belarus.”
A possibility of war between Belarus and Russia. “This does not fit in my head why Russians would be fighting Russians? When some begin to caution me this way or say that after the Crimea Putin will come to Belarus, I just cannot imagine this happening <…> We need to calm down, throw away all these mean thoughts out of our heads. We have too many other problems that we must solve.”
Language policy. “The [1995] referendum drew a line under the language issue once and for all. We have two state languages. That is over and done with the subject as long as Lukashenka is President. The Russian language is our wealth which we are not going to abandon. I have a son, and I want him to know Belarusian as well as Russian. I prohibited language persecution. Do you know what gave the start to the Ukrainian conflict? It was caused by stupud anti-minorities policy. I am proud to have screwed the neck of the [Belarusian] nationalism.”
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Nothing to repent of. According to Lukashenka, the government has not committed any global errors, but some decisions may have been ‘incorrect or imprecise’ in some complicated economic situations. “But it happened because we lack the experience, because we didn’t have the state, we didn’t have the knowledge to handle that. Russians are better off, it is simpler for them. The Kremlin had the experience, it was slightly easier for them,” he explained.
Nuclear weapons. The head of state reminded that he had been forced to fulfill the decision made by someone else in favor of removing nuclear weapons from Belarus. “I said directly and sincerely, I was criticized for that: if it was up to me, I would never do it nowadays. You can see what’s happening in the world: those, who have power, are in the right,” he said.
‘Spies’ preach in Belarus. Some Roman Catholic priests from Poland are involved in the activities they are not supposed to in Belarus, Lukashenka said allegedly hinting at a recent spy scandal and arrest of P. Uladzislau Lazar.
“As for the Polish clergy, I am not really happy with the service of some of them on our land <…> There are problems, but they are not disastrous and unsolvable. We will quietly sort everything out, including with citizens of Poland who preach and work in the Roman Catholic Church,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes Lukashenka as saying.
No trust to Western partners, no shift in Belarus-West relations. “There will be no major shifts in relations of Europe, America and Belarus prior to the presidential election. I am okay with that,” Lukashenka said. At the same time, he hopes the resolution of the issue of political prisoners will not be crucial for normalizing relations with the West.
“I don’t try too hard to be part of the Eastern Partnership Initiative. I see how things are handled over there. If we deal with one issue, they will conjure up another one and will slam me and maybe all my partisans up to the presidential election — we will have to see after that. Normalizing relations with the West at the expense of some prisoners is not the idea,” he stressed.
‘So-called political prisoners’. There are no political prisoners in Belarus, Lukashenka stated. According to him, the country ‘will not tolerate’ reoccurrence of the post-election situation when he said oppositionists ‘tried to storm’ the House of Government.
When asked about Mikalai Statkevich, the 2010 presidential candidate, who has already spent over 1500 days in prison, Statkevich, Lukashenka answered: “He is no politician. I have video records that show him leading people to storm the building, there are records of his commands and talks <…> We know who paid [them] the money. I know what the money was paid for. I know what the candidates were supposed to achieve. They were supposed to stage a maidan in Belarus and were promised money for it. I could not let that happen.”
Presidential elections-2015. “I will not go. I have no such right. I have already explained: if the country collapses and you see me go, I will be accused of cowardice <…> I have no right to withdraw my candidacy or not to run if I have no reasons against it. If I am safe and sound in 2015, perhaps you will see me among the candidates for the presidency,” Lukashenka said.
Only dementia, imbecility or disease may prevent him from running for presidency, he added.
www.belsat.eu/en, following BelTA
