MINSK, 9 September (BelTA) - Peace and neatness are the brand of Belarus, and this has not gone anywhere, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview to representatives of Russia's leading mass media outlets on 8 September, BelTA has learned.
“On entering Minsk you see peacefulness and cleanliness despite certain protests. It is a brand, and all this has been preserved, this has not gone anywhere. I have already said recently: once you drive behind the ring road, you see a completely different life there. Maybe, just like in Moscow: beyond the limits of Moscow, there is a different Russia. Of course, we try to maintain the image of our country. As you say, cleanliness, neatness, calmness and so on. On Sundays people are sometimes going out into the streets. There is no destabilization in the country,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
According to the president, if it was not for the external factor, which is expressed in management of protests, there would be no provocative street actions in the country. “In this case, both we and Russians know who controls them and from where. It is run by Americans from the center near Warsaw through well-known Telegram channels. The second center is the Czech Republic. Then goes Lithuania, and unfortunately, in Ukraine they set up strongholds to influence Belarus, too. You see: a square is drawn on a famous channel on Sunday - go there. They go there. Then, one more square is drawn - go there, and then go to the Palace of Independence. This is the way they control it. This is just one way of influence,” the head of state said.
“As for the second method to influence, they tried to get on our nerves (as I understand it now, then I took it seriously) with different kinds of exercises near the borders of Belarus, near the borders of the Union State - we will need this definition for the future. I had to mobilize half of the Belarusian army to counteract it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added. According to him, the Belarusian border is still reinforced along the entire perimeter, except for the Russian direction. “We have even strengthened the border with Ukraine. Judging by the night before [the interview was given on 8 September, and the president was talking about the incident with Maria Kolesnikova], it was not done in vain,” stressed the president.
