MINSK, 9 December (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko gave his take on Poland's plans to build a wall on the border with Belarus in an interview with the Turkish broadcaster TRT, BelTA has learned.
“Apparently, some of the initiators of this project in Poland have run out of money. Therefore, they want to replenish their wallets using this project. If we talk about the wall, it will cost neither $400 million nor $500 million, as they plan, but about $1 billion,” the head of state said.
He noted that a wall had already been built in some sections of the Belarusian-Polish border, but this does not help deter refugees: “As Polish special services admit, most of the refugees penetrated the country in the areas where this wall was built. All in all, about 25,000 people. Therefore, does it make any sense to build such a wall?”
Aleksandr Lukashenko recalled the U.S. attempts to build a wall on the border with Mexico. "One president was into it, the next administration is destroying this wall now. I think that something like that will happen in Poland,” the Belarusian leader noted. “We are not concerned about it. That's their problem. Let them do it. This will not hurt us. But the situation in Poland is very unstable. The current government may not survive. And I am sure that smarter, more rational people will come to power and find better use for one billion U.S. dollars."
The head of state cited the Berlin Wall. "Its fall was a victory for European democracy. Everyone welcomed the destruction of dividing lines and walls on the border! Now they want to fence the European Union off with a 5.5m high wall? Somehow it does not fit into their ideology and democracy. This is a stupid, silly idea," the president concluded.
