Russia will never be at war with Belarus - Lukashenka gives interview to independent media
Three journalists representing Radio Liberty, European Radio for Belarus and news portal tut.by are to meet with the head of state today. The interview will last for 1.5 hours.
ERB and Radio Liberty asked for an interview during the presidential press conference in January. The press service also offered a representative of tut.by to interview the Belarusian leader.
Conflict in Ukraine
“I do not support any troops in Ukraine – Russian or any other. The way the conflict is being covered by Russian media is ridiculous. The same thing is happening to the Ukrainian mass media – the information war is on its full wing. I do not support any invasions or mercenaries. When I met with Turchinov, I told him that this would never happen. From our territory no one will ever attack Ukraine unless it contradicts our interests or Ukraine itself attacks Belarus. But this will never happen. There will be no intervention in Ukraine from the territory of Belarus.”
Russian military bases in Belarus
“There are two absolutely peaceful military bases in our territory. A base in Baranavichy – perhaps, 75% of our people serve here. And there is a base in Gantsavichi that can be named a high-tech engineering station which controls launching missiles. Can they attack the Ukraine? No. We have also a small group of customs officers and Russian border officers, as there is no border between Russia and Belarus there. I gave the nod. and their observers will be able to check it – there are ten people.”
“I asked them to sell aircraft: “Give us a dozen of aircraft – or sell cheap. I need to provide security at the World Championship”. They said they could give 3 planes.”
‘Russian world’
“It is not true that most people favor the ‘Russian world’. I asked Ambassador (Russian – ERB): “What do ‘gathering Russian lands’ and the ‘Russian world’ mean?” But no one explained it to me. But now Russian media do not pet this idea anymore. The idea of the Russian world is nonsense that was offered to propaganda machine by someone. It is a contrived and stupid argument, and we should not put the words into the mouth of President of Russia – he has never adhered to this position.
Raising wages: “We will not print extra money”
“Knowing that we cannot raise wages, we started to control prices. And in many fields where the government adgust prices we have actually frozen them. The situation is that we cannot raise wages. We pegged wages to the productivity output. If there is no production, we do not have funds for increasing salaries. We are not going to print money. I am sure that within a year or two we’ll be back to the level of salaries, which we have recently had. Even if the situation in our traditional markets will be the same as it is now.”
Russia-Ukraine conflict and threats to Belarus
“Russia will never wage war on Belarus. It would be a catastrophe for Russia. You don’t believe it either, I do not know why you are writing that we are next after Ukraine. Belarus is the only decent ally of the Russian Federation now,” Lukashenka answered the question asked by Radio Liberty journalist Valery Kalinouski. “Your problem is the fact that you do not know what is happening and what happened in Ukraine. Mass media have carted sort of trend of the Ukrainain events. What if someone wanted part of Palesye? We would fight for every piece of the land. There were many Ukrainian troops there. Why didn’t they go to war? Do you understand that this land in not yours? There are a lot of nuances about the Ukrainian events and they are not publicly discussed. But it does not mean that we do not discus them at closed meetings.”
Belarusian language
He has started speaking Belarusian more with his youngest son, Lukashenka noted.
“I have always demonstrated that nobody can tell people what language to speak. 60% of the population considers Belarusian their mother tongue. It would have been different if we had exercised pressure on the people,” Lukashenka said when Euroradio journalist Zmitser Lukashuk suggested he gave the interview in Belarusian.
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Belsat TV journalists have not been invited to the meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka; the channel’s crews are always unwelcome at his press conferences. In 2007, Lukashenka called Belsat a ‘stupid, uncongenial project’.
Belsat TV made several attempt to get a formal accreditation and filed all the necessary documents to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But in vain: the Ministry’s officers refused to register its correspondent office in Minsk referring to Belsat contributors’ alleged law violations. As our reporters have to perform their professional duties without any accreditation they repeatedly draw fire from Lukashenka’s regime.
