English

Lukashenka says that he is OK with the Internet

 

Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on Friday that he was “OK with the Internet.”

“Sometimes I have to get involved in your Internet community not only to obtain some information but also protect our stability, security and country as the head of state,” the Belarusian leader said at a news conference in Minsk.

“There are a lot of useful things on the Internet, but contrariwise the terrorist attack had its origins there as well. He downloaded everything,” he said in a reference to a suspect in a deadly bombing that took place in the Minsk subway this past April.

Following his arrest, the man was offered to assemble his bomb blindfold and he did it, Mr. Lukashenka said.

Commenting on a YouTube video showing three young men enter the Maskowskaya subway station unhampered through unlocked doors at 3:45 a.m., Mr. Lukashenka said that the Internet played a positive role in that case.

“When the report landed on my table, you know how I reacted – the head of the subway was kicked out to clean the streets, along with other people who should have been there,” he said. “I ordered the interior ministry to reward the guy. As far as I know, he has already been rewarded.”

As for recent motorists` protests, organized mostly via the Internet, Mr. Lukashenka said that he was critical of them. “Is it normal when you have to deal with a crowd on the pavement when returning home tired with your small child from the kindergarten?”

Mr. Lukashenka also mentioned the opposition news site charter.org. “As I have been told, even if you want to leave a message there, you will not necessarily make it into. An editor works hard there. Is it about democracy? And they demand democracy,” he said.

“It is not for nothing that the Americans are creating something what will allow to remove all controls over the Internet,” he said. “They have seen that the Internet is an effective weapon to pursue their ends.”// BelaPAN