MINSK, 7 January (BelTA) – The year 2021 was better than 2020 for Belarus, but it also taught us a few lessons, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said during the visit to the Church of the Venerable Optina Elders in Minsk on Christmas on 7 January, BelTA has learned.
“Celebrating Christmas last year, we also talked about the year 2020. It was not an easy year, but it was useful for us. Back then we hoped that the year 2021 will be better. Let's be sincere: it was not easy either (there are no and will never be easy years), but 2021 was better than 2020,” the head of state remarked. “Just like the year 2020, the year 2021 also taught us a few lessons. They say, you cannot tell lies in church. If you don't have much to say, then don't say anything. Therefore, I believe that you must always be sincere and tell the truth here. The year was not easy, and it taught us a few lessons. We had the time analyze everything that we had done.”
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, having analyzed the current events, he made a conclusion that God has warned people. “We are not always living in the right way, we are not always doing the right things. I mean not only the president and the government. I mean all of us as a nation. Therefore, God has warned us: if we continue living this way, we will face serious difficulties. One of them is the pandemic,” the president said.
“The time has passed, and we, and not only we, have made certain conclusions. Everybody is going our way right now,” the head of state said. “We were right. Of course, we are not that rich. We do not have the resources that other countries have. But we did okay last year, and even our ‘non-believers' say that the country did the impossible. There was a downfall in the world, and Belarus is still standing. We are still standing because we did our best in 2020 and 2021. Probably, God helped us. Walk and you shall reach. This is what I can say about the previous year. It seems that we have coped with difficulties. I have been speaking a lot about the things that were going on around us.”
