MINSK, 31 July (BelTA) – During a conference with Belarusian diplomats abroad Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made a few comments about pardoning a number of convicts after recent negotiations with representatives of the United States of America, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “Some people in our society have started not exactly condemning me but wailing wildly. And it is surprising that the self-exiled opposition wails most of all. It is understandable that they don’t need freeloaders. Because if we release someone, there is one condition regardless of whoever asks me for it (mainly Americans): if you want it, go ahead and take them, remove them from the country. Does our self-exiled opposition need it?”
The president remarked that he had suggested handing over several thousand other people, who had been convicted of various crimes, if the other side had wanted it: “The last time I told them we could add these people if they wanted it. No, they didn’t want those people. They wanted these people.”
“For instance, consider the last prisoner that has been released. Well, you’d been asking for it. And I pardoned him with my own hand. And he alone stirred up the entire gang. Well, you’d been asking for his release. Well, take him now. They say he is pro-Russian. But didn’t you know that he is pro-Russian? You knew his biography. You placed some bets on him. And you placed bets on everyone [in 2020] and wanted them to seize power and sort out things later. Politics doesn’t work like that. Power can be seized if they want to bet on idiots and scum and they may stay in power. But they thought differently,” the head of state said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the deal had had nothing to do with trafficking in persons: “I was dead set against the exchange as they say. Americans taught me that. They told me about it directly during the negotiations. I told them: guys, you’ve made me do it. If you want them, take them away. What will you give me in exchange? They said they will think about it. I told them to go and think.”
“So in response to those great posturing patriots of today, should we feed, clothe [the convicts] and the rest for free here? I’ve watched only part of the interview with that fugitive. He still did not say that he had been tortured, that human rights had been violated. He wanted to squeeze it out of himself but these things don’t happen. But [prisoner upkeep] costs a lot,” the head of state concluded.
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