MINSK, 26 January (BelTA) – As he was talking to reporters in Minsk on 26 January, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko exposed a lie by a representative of Western mass media and told the truth about how the self-exiled opposition had organized events in Warsaw in connection with the ballot day in Belarus, BelTA has learned.
A reporter with Agence France-Presse started saying that a large rally was taking place in Warsaw. However, Aleksandr Lukashenko argued that the event was not as large as Western mass media were trying to portray it. Only dozens of people instead of thousands were taking part in it. “Don’t make people laugh. I know how this rally was organized. There is no rally over there because funding has been suspended [by the USA after the new president assumed the office]. Trump didn’t give money,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The president pointed out that reporters of Western mass media had produced biased coverage time and time again. They may provide coverage from street rallies while greatly inflating the number of participants just like it was in Minsk in 2020. “Everything you’ve said [about thousands of people taking part in the rally in Warsaw and about why people went there] is a lie,” the president stressed.
The head of state noted that competent agencies had informed him about how this action had been organized and about the squabble surrounding the event: some said that they would be unable to gather even 1,000 people, this is why there was no need to organize the rally while some still insisted it should be organized.
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, he instructed the relevant agencies to identify participants of the rally with connections to Belarus. “We hinted that their relatives, parents, family members, and loved ones live here. You would simply put your own people at risk. And we will sort you out,” the head of state said. “They [potential participants] responded to it. ‘If you are fools, then go and participate. But we won’t. We don’t want our relatives to suffer the consequences (they live in Belarus) and we want to return into the country at some point. Maybe even under the current president.”
Another question asked by a representative of this French news agency focused on the start of the armed conflict in Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and the movement of Russian troops. According to the president, the reporter’s opinion about the matter can be called amateurish. Once again Aleksandr Lukashenko explained: “Those were not Belarusian troops. I am responsible for the Belarusian troops. And if you think that despite my close relationship with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin I sit in Russia’s General Staff and chart the movement of the Russian Armed Forces on the map, listen, you are an amateur then. These things are done quietly and they are done by a minimal number of people. Without foreign interference. Without foreigners.”
The head of state stressed that he feels no regret about the decisions he made during that period of 2022 because keeping Belarus out of the war was the key thing.
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