29 March 2024, Friday, 13:51
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Mikalai Statkevich: Time To Stop Him

Mikalai Statkevich: Time To Stop Him
MIKALAI STATKEVICH
PHOTO: RADIO SVABODA

Lukashenka’s regime causes nothing but harm to the country.

It has been said by one of the Belarusian opposition leaders, ex-candidate for presidency in the elections 2010 Mikalai Statkevich in his interview to charter97.org, as he commented on the address of Lukashenka “to the parliament and the nation”:

– Odd as it may seem, this man has said the truth in many aspects. This year, as he said, we will have to tighten our belts really. But Belarusians won’t be able to loosen their belts ever under his rule. If we accept that with resignation, only one thing is left for us – to continue “tightening belts” and remain in this situation.

Secondly, he was not lying when he said that no Belarusization is possible under his rule – “mild” or any other. Russia is not just his only ally, he is simply sponsored by Russia: this regime simply cannot survive without it. It means we have been lucky to hear the truth from his man as well.

– To your mind, for how long the authorities would be able to “compress the string”?

– As long as Belarusians are going to bear. It is a pot, which had been “heated” by the authorities for so many years, still has no lid. People are trying to leave the country. Those who prefer to work with their hands, go East. Those who can work with their head, go West. We are simply losing potential for our nation.

If nothing is done, it is to go on “shrinking”, until nothing is left to be tightened. Until only officials, policemen, pensioners and drunkards are left here with Lukashenka.

These could be the dark prospects for us, if we don’t stop this man. He won’t stop himself: he is going to squeeze us, until we are able to shrink, until we yield to pressure.

We must stop yielding. We must stop this man at last. And he could be stopped – we can do that, and we have already stopped him more than once.

We stopped him in 1990ies, when he wanted to hand over our country to Russia – as six regions or as an autonomy, in order to come to the “throne” in Moscow. We stopped him many times, when he tried to solve his problems at the expense of this or that strata of the society.

So the answer is simple: he must be stopped.

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