English

Lukashenka: I am not dictator

“I’m one hundred percent not a dictator because this is against my nature,” Alyaksandr Lukashenka said in an interview recently given to The Independent and the BBC. “I’m a democrat to a greater extent than you even in your perception of this process and this word. I value freedom above everything else.”

According to the Belarusian leader, serving as president is a very responsible job. “I feel bad if people criticize me for something or express discontent,” he said. “This is the most terrible thing for me.”

“We would have abandoned some things long ago if it were not for your pressure from the outside,” Mr. Lukashenka said. “We all the time have to gather together and try to withstand the negative pressure that is put on us from the West or the East. We have to do this in order to survive. You push us to this all the time and we resist. Sometimes we have to make tough decisions in order to unite. And you say, ‘This is dictatorship.’ But I have no resources for dictatorship. Do you understand this? ...Even Russia cannot afford dictatorship. I have neither natural gas or oil or nuclear weapons. What are you talking about? If I dared to behave today like a dictator, ‘eat’ people on the street, hang them, I would be wiped off the face of the earth by all these democracies that lie to the west of Brest. And it would be right of them to do so. I say once again that one should have resources to be a dictator. Secondly, one should be born to be a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I do everything possible and necessary today for our country. Maybe, I make mistakes. Time will show if I’m wrong.”

Mr. Lukashenka pointed to honesty and justice as the basis for his rule. “I’ve always believed that genuine democracy means justice in the first instance,” he said. “That’s why it seems to me that justice is the most important principle and indicator of the state of democracy in any society.”

"Unlike in the UK, or France, or America, we've never used water cannons to disperse mass demonstrations,” Mr. Lukashenka said. “Even when they attacked the House of Government [on December 19, 2010] and broke the door, smashed windows and tried to occupy the House of Government, we didn't use any water cannons, nor CS gas. We brought in police and special task forces. Then the gawkers all ran, and the only ones left were their activists: 400 people who were detained, those who were breaking the door. Some 30 people remained in detention after 24 hours. And those who directly broke and organizers continue to be in prison. I guess there are two of them."

According to Mr. Lukashenka, he calls opposition activists the fifth column because the West told them before the December 2010 presidential election that they would not be given money if there were no chaos and riot. “At present they are not given money for only printing flyers and appearing in the media. Action is demanded from them,” he said, noting that Poland and Lithuanian were major channels through which opposition groups received money from their “masters” in the United States, Germany and Britain, which he said included various foundations run by the government. “We’ve already informed our public of that and produced specific documents and evidence,” he said. “They [opposition figures] also testified where they had taken money. Now they openly tell the West: ‘We cannot fight against the dictatorship and the regime because you don’t give us money.’ This is no secret.”