Opinions & Interviews
Lukashenko: No time to relax yet
MINSK, 9 September (BelTA) – Belarus has been saved. Stability in Belarus has been preserved in the current situation in and around the country but it is not the time to relax yet. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the relevant statement in a recent interview with Russian mass media, BelTA has learned.
During the interview Aleksandr Lukashenko answered questions concerning police brutality during unauthorized rallies and street riots. “Riot police and internal troops of the Internal Affairs Ministry work in the streets. Their job is to stabilize the situation, protect the country. Have they broken the law? They haven’t. There is one thing I don’t like about it when I saw the picture… Certainly, he [a protester] did something and was fleeing away. You have to understand when people are agitated, he received what was coming for him. I met with them [law enforcers] and told them: guys, I don’t appreciate it, don’t do it, you shouldn’t beat people on the ground.”
“Why is riot police blamed for everything? Because they saved us from a blitzkrieg as we can see now. Street protesters were supposed to storm government buildings, capture them, and do the rest on 9 August (they failed) and on 10 August. If riot police hadn’t acted as they did, you and I would not be sitting here today. They counteracted it. Yes, street protesters got their due. What else could we do? The street protesters were aggressive and broke the law,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
This is why many people already had bruises when they were delivered to the detention center in Okrestina Alley in Minsk. Moreover, many of the apprehended street protesters already had criminal records and hate police and law enforcement agencies as a whole. The head of state noted: “A lot of them were delivered to the detention center in Okrestina Alley. Some had been tried 12 times and the rest. Hate is in their blood,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted. “So, when they – drunkards and drug addicts (60% of the total, not everyone was a drunkard or a drug addict) – rushed the police, they met a response. Naturally some were beaten up. But riot police didn’t do it. There were no riot police officers in the detention center in Okrestina Alley. But everything was directed against them.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that some news reports about beatings and bruises inflicted by law enforcement officers are fake. “There are no bruises now. While 39 or 40 guys, riot police officers, are still in hospital with broken bones, broken spines. I’ve told [Internal Affairs Minister Yuri] Karayev: we should support every one of them. Some of them will never walk again. That’s the problem. What did these guys suffer for? Why were they injured? Because they saved the country and put things right? Maybe it is too early to analyze it in this manner as I say it now. But it is my pain. I cannot condemn these guys, who protected the country and me. That’s the way I see it. The spearhead was directed against them [against riot police] because they put a stop to the blitzkrieg,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stated.
“I am forced to weigh things. Yes, some have gone overboard. And [Internal Affairs Minister Yuri] Karayev apologized twice. I told him to apologize once if things indeed had happened. He apologized twice,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed. “We have to turn the page. And review these matters when passions die down. We’ve made conclusions. Don’t think we are made of stone. We’ve made conclusions.”
“It is very rude to say that you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. I never say that. But in life when a big brawl is in progress… But the fact that they saved the republic, saved the country, saved stability… I think it came at a cost,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.
Yet he stressed that it is not the time to relax yet. “Russia shouldn’t relax either. It is the beginning. Americans have long-term goals. Yes, we’ve intercepted that conversation. Even if you laugh at it, it was a genuine conversation,” the Belarusian leader stated.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said that all the original records had been handed over to Director of Russia’s FSB Aleksandr Bortnikov: “The genuine record that we’ve intercepted from a secret phone. The distorted voice. The system is designed to destroy data if you don’t catch it in time. Our record was also distorted. We’ve restored it properly. We’ve handed over the genuine record, documents, even the envelope I received it in to Russia.”
“This is why don’t make fun of it. We have an abundance of such data. But this conversation stood out from the crowd. There was something Jesuitical about it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.
Yet he noted that some mass media, including Russian ones, are skeptical about the intercepted conversation between Warsaw and Berlin that Belarus had published. “Never mind, you will soon see that it was only the beginning. We will see more soon. Not only we will. You will see, too. I am done talking. I think whatever I say to you…” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted. “I know a lot but I will not tell you anything anymore. Because even [the reporter and TV host Vladimir] Solovyov, who seemed to take it properly… What was his phrase? Baby talk or something like that? Something along the lines. I think before you say things like that, you have to understand that this information is revealed by a head of state. I had thought long and hard before revealing this piece of information.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko explained he had decided to reveal the data because he believes Vladimir Putin to be his friend, a friend that had lent a shoulder.
“They spoke English as you would expect. They were neither Germans nor Poles. They were definitely Americans because Americans speak peculiar English,” Aleksandr Lukashenko shared details of the intercepted conversation. He noted it had been possible to intercept the conversation thanks to an electronic intelligence installation, which is located near Grodno and employs well-trained army specialists.
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