If a Belarusian public servant refuses to speak to reporters, he will be replaced, president Alyaksandr Lukashenka warned at Tuesday’s meeting with representatives of state-run mass media.
Belarusians wonder if his promise is applicable to Lukashenka himself. In is noteworthy that not a single independent journalist was invited to the event.
“It is bad when there is only one politician in the country, when the political framework was mopped up, when the press has no choice but to wait for the first person’s saying a word. The journalists start to divide his long speeches into quotations, chew over them, comment on them, which proves the fact that we have an abnormal political system,” political analyst Alyaksandr Klaskouski says.
According to the expert, Lukashenka touched on the subject of amending the Constitution only vaguely:
“He said that some functions of the president should be handed over to other branches of power but then checked himself and added that it was not the time to amend the Constitution yet.”
The president does have some concerns over ideology and Russia’s information wars.
“Lukashenka called himself a ‘great nationalist’ – he did it very carefully when saying he wanted to watch Belarusian TV channels. He did not want to tease Moscow. That is, those in power are considering the options to stem the Kremlin propaganda, but at the same time, they do not want to rile the Kremlin,” he said.
Belsat.eu
