Posts Tagged ‘Lukashenka’
I Am that I Am
Posted by: Maryna Rakhlei in EU on September 17th, 2009
Lukashenka goes for the West. That’s what Russian press understood from his working visit to Vilnius on September’16. First time since 1998 he went to Lithuania and – to EU.
But no, he is not going to take sides between Russia and EU.
While in Vilnius he was talking about the importance of the relations with Brussels and Belarus’ contribution into European security. He said Minsk was not going to make any special moves to impress the West to have the sanctions lifted: if EU wanted to improve relations and have a dialogue, it’d just do this.
At the same time he tried to comfort Moscow telling Lithuanian journalists that Belarusian parliament would look into the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in October. Underlining Russia is an important partner for Minsk.
Lukashenka repeated the usual things he instructs his ministers with. Interesting enough that the same rhetoric sounds very different outside Belarus.
Back home his quotes are to be written up and analysed, they pave the way for the development of the country. In Vilnius he seemed to be defending his right to be the way he is, to rule the country his way. He went on the defensive simply to be understood.
Love me or leave me, is the message to the EU. You won’t change me but we could try and come to a compromise to normalise relations.
PS
It’s also that Lukashenka was pretty nervous. That’s very understandable: his offices have everything under control in Minsk, when and where everyone goes, they line up journalists and usually decide on the questions.
The change of the situation is clearly seen in his pictures. The limited number of Belarusian photographers who work with the President can take pictures of him only from certain perspectives, afterwards the pictures are edited in Photoshop. In Vilnius any photographer could work almost from any place. And in these pictures Lukashenka looks older, he looks worked out and strained. And by the way, very human.
Belarus’ 15 Unique Years
Posted by: Maryna Rakhlei in EU on July 10th, 2009
Today it’s the 15th anniversary of Belarusian President Lukashenka in power.
It’s a strange feeling – that’s half of my life. Sometimes I feel as a linguistic invalid. With a new regulation introduced 4 years ago I got used to apply the word president to the one and only position in the country. And feel ill at ease to refer to him as to “the current president”. He is The President here.
But no comments from my part. The quintessence of the years could be followed through Lukashenka’s quotes. I’ve tried to pick out those that don’t lose their meaning without the context. Anyway direct quotations often say more than they read.
- “I am the president of the country and this country will be [=exist] until I am the president.”
- “We falsified the latest election [in March 2006], I’ve already told westerners about this. As many as 93.5 percent voted for President Lukashenka. They say it is not a European figure. We turned it into 86 [percent]. This did take place. And if we now start recounting ballots, I don’t know what we should do with them.”
- “I enjoy playing football and hockey, but most often I play alone.”
- “I want you to wear your own and eat your own [products]. They are probably packed not as good as the foreign things, but today we don’t have enough foreign currency.”
- “I am confident that the Europeans will come crawling to Belarus to ask for co-operation in the fight against drug trafficking and illegal migration.”
- “I think Americans realised that Belarus is the key country in Europe and they need to cooperate with it.”
- “Our “dictatorship” doesn’t hinder anyone’s life or development.”
- “I am pretty tired of the question of the so called political prisoners. There are no political crimes therefore there can be no political prisoners. They are ordinary criminals <…> We released them.”
- “Those <detained during demonstrations> were unconscious and blind drunk, 10-15 days arrests’ were necessary for them to recover themselves.”
- “What kind of opposition is that? They’ve been fighting in the centre of Europe for more than 20 years, I guess, and still can’t put at least one man into the parliament – to be honest, even with the support of the authorities.”
- “Those who drink – you’d better not vote for me, I won’t be a friend of yours.”
- “All these years I’ve been carefully and reverently carrying this clear, crystal vase called Belarus.”
- “The situation in Belarus is unique as I don’t owe anything to anyone.”
Russian Bread Crumbs
Posted by: Maryna Rakhlei in EU on May 29th, 2009
It’s very likely that from now on the movement of Belarusian authorities towards Brussels’ requirements will be even more visible. The Belarusian president was furious about yesterdays’ remarks of the Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin who publicly cast doubt on the Belarus’ ability to default on its debt by the end of the year due to the dire state of economy. He warned it was too early to say whether Belarus would receive any further loans from Moscow.
“The future of Belarus can no longer depend on Russia… The days of Minsk bowing down to Moscow are over… Belarus needs to look for its happiness on a different part of the planet.”– announced Lukashenka. And underlined that he was saying this in public consciously.
The escapade came a day after his talks with the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Minsk. Putin who travelled together with Kudrin played a “good cop” and expressed hope that Belarusian-Russian trade kept increasing in the period of the global crisis.
Lukashenka in contrast expressed outrage that Kudrin’s comments had been agreed with Putin and commented that the Russian minister had also fully consolidated with the Belarusian opposition which lived on Western grants and tried to teach the authorities to work. (That’s probably the worst you can say about someone: he is with the opposition!)
The stakes according to Lukashenka are high: “If we don’t stand tall… we are going to be running in a sweat to the right and the left in the hope that someone is going to throw us a piece of bread from the table.”
He mentioned no alternative to Russia. But we have two strong neighbours. And if we don’t bow down to Russia, the movement towards EU could become more visible. The problem is that this visibility is nothing new. So there’s little hope this movement is going to be more effective this time.
