Russian Channel One about Lukashenka: Is the matter in Roma roots? (Video)
- 22.11.2010, 9:07
Lukashenka is “weak today as never before”, the Russian Channel One thinks.
The programme “Vremya” (Time) on Russian Channel One TV showed a report on November 21 about the pre-election situation in Belarus:
Belarus had an important event: 10 presidential candidates have been registered, the election is scheduled for December 19.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his younger son Kolya visit the Belarusian regions a month before the election and assure the voters of absence of the crisis in the country.
Lukashenka has increased pensions by 10% and the minimum wage by 50% during the election campaign. The Belarusian ruble is expected to fell down just after the election or on New Year’s Eve, as it was in 2009. Currency exchange offices in Minsk gather queues.
Lukashenka gives more interviews to European journalists now. He confesses to German correspondents that he doesn’t expect Russia to recognize the election results, and tells Polish journalists he will get 50% of the oil he needs from Venezuela. The Belarusian president is asked how it happened so that the two sister countries have quarreled. Love to Warsaw can easily be explained. In the run-up to the election, European politicians pay more and more visits to the person they used to dub the last dictator of Europe.
President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite said loudly the thought that Brussels apparently has but feels shy to express it.
Dalia Grybauskaite, the President of Lithuania: “Lukashenka is a guarantor of the economic and political stability in Belarus, the independence of the country. We wouldn’t like our neighbour to become a second Russia.”
Ten years ago, the Belarusian opposition burnt a Russian flag in the center of Minsk. Now, a EU flag at an opposition press conference looks like a mistake. Two main independent candidates in Minsk are called pro-Russian. And they are not ashamed of this fact.
Andrei Sannikov, the leader of European Belarus civil campaign: “We should proceed from the real situation. If Europe speaks about supporting Lukashenka, while Russia speaks about the opposition, we should take this into account and welcome.”
Lukashenka says candidates Andrei Sannikov and Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu are “mercenary” and “Russian”. But some years ago, he called his opponents western spies. Lukashenka said Stanislau Shushkevich, a former Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Council of Belarus, was a Pole.
Stanislau Shushkevich, the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus in 1991–1994: “You know, I have only Belarusians among my ancestors. His nationality is unknown: maybe he is of Rome origin, or of Jewish origin. In any case, he is definitely not a Belarusian.”
It remains unknown whether the matter is in Roma roots, but Alyaksandr Lukashenka became friends with film director Emir Kusturica in the middle of the election campaign. Lukashenka offered Emir Kusturica to shoot a film in Minsk and promised his help. Kusturica is hardly to know the Belarusian president well, otherwise he wouldn’t miss an opportunity to make a movie about him. All the more reason is that Kusturica has already depicted similar characters.
The European Union promises to grant Belarus 3 billion euros in exchange for the honest election.
Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, the leader of Tell the Truth! Campaign, a Belarusian presidential candidate: “Russia said: enough for you, you won’t have free money any more. Then European politicians replace Russian ones. He will take that money from them because he needs it, but he won’t even thank for that.”