MINSK, 12 July (BelTA) – The Russian language is not foreign to Belarus. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made the statement during the opening of the plenary session of the 19th World Congress of Russian Press on 12 July, BelTA has learned.
The head of state stressed: “I would like to underline that the Russian language is not a foreign language in Belarus. It is our national treasure, too. Over the course of many centuries the Belarusians have contributed a lot to its development and have enriched the language. Today Russian is a state language in Belarus just like Belarusian. The people made their choice at the referendum.”
“Thanks to this we can enjoy more large-scale and direct contacts in science, culture, and art. We expand intellectual and informational horizons of fruitful cooperation with brotherly nations, promoting the ideas of good neighborhood and peacefulness,” noted Alexander Lukashenko.
Alexander Lukashenko remarked that people in Russia at various levels often thank him for this attitude to the Russian language. He noted he had talked about it with President of Russia Vladimir Putin once. Back then the Belarusian head of state stressed that the Russian language belongs to many countries and nations, including Belarus.
“The Russian language is my Russian language. It is a living thing. Not only Russian people have contributed to it. It is a totally different Russian language where customs, characters, and tolerance intertwine, including those of the Belarusian people. This language developed century after century,” stressed Alexander Lukashenko. “Our language, the Russian language that Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, and many other people speak, has souls of many nations intertwined.”
“The Russian language is our language. You have come into the country where people revere, respect, talk, and think in Russian. We are certainly glad that at the same time we have done a lot to advance the Belarusian language to the heights of the Russian one. And we are doing a lot. You should not be concerned about it in the slightest,” Alexander Lukashenko told participants of the event.
“Losing the Russian language today means losing one's history, the present, and, I am convinced, the future,” added the head of state. “We have never rejected it and never will. Moreover, we will always fight for it.”
According to Alexander Lukashenko, Russian-language mass media have a huge audience and a sphere of influence. Russian-language mass media play a most important role as the bearer of the Eastern Slavonic cultural code, common values and reference points in one's life. “Through the great Russian language traditions and values of the Slavonic world are manifested such as spiritual and moral ideals, the desire to achieve justice, to do good, to serve the society, and the ability to get united in the face of a common disaster. Unfortunately, these simple and understandable guidelines are not always honored. We can see how tensions are manifested in a number of areas on the planet, how conflicts get to the boiling point, how blood is shed, and the geopolitical canvass of the world is redesigned. The global information space is changing radically, too,” said the head of state.
