Opinions & Interviews

Emir Kusturica explains why he loves Belarus

Screenshot of video by Belarus 1

MINSK, 28 March (BelTA) – Serbian film director Emir Kusturica told the Belarus 1 TV channel why he loves Belarus, BelTA has learned.

“I love your country,” Emir Kusturica said. “Because you did not experience such transformations as the Soviet Union did; one might say, you have maintained the continuity with what had happened before.”

According to him, Belarus respects its history. “You have not gone through the things that happened in Serbia where huge multinational companies got their hands on the country’s assets and are now selling them around the world,” added the film director. “There are BlackRock, Vanguard, as well as Jeff Bezos who earns $44 billion a year. Everything is done in the interests of the United States, not in the interests of Europe, Belarus, Serbia. They are also present in Serbia, but in Belarus this is impossible. And I really respect that,” he said.

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko visited Yugoslavia on 14  April 1999. The country was experiencing relentless bombing by NATO forces at that moment. “Despite the bombing, Milošević did not yield up independence and sovereignty; your president did not do it, either. You can see that Europe gave up on its sovereignty... Because Jeff Bezos has his business interests everywhere, he does not pay taxes to anyone. He has a lot of money. Milošević did not let the likes of Bezos call the shots in Serbia. It was the reason why they resorted to bombing,” the director said. “The prevailing narratives in the world portray the Serbs as bad people, as human animals, just like you are being framed now.”

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