MINSK, 17 August (BelTA) – Over recent years Belarusian people have built a sovereign and independent state for the first time in their history, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a rally in Minsk on 16 August, BelTA has learned.
“Back then, in the mid-1990s, at rallies and on squares and unfortunately here in the parliament, we destroyed everything that God had given us: our huge and great empire that had a say in every decision in the world. We got a bleeding piece of that empire. What did people want back then? You asked for a piece of bread. You asked for 20 dollars of salary, you asked to bail out factories, you asked for a tractor, a combine harvester in order to save the countryside. You asked not to privatize factories and plants. You asked to let peasants keep their land. You asked to keep healthcare and education free. You asked to give back honor to officers and soldiers who were afraid to go outside,” the president said.
“You asked me, a political novice, to pull people back from the brink. We did that. We did what millions of predecessors dreamed about. We built a sovereign independent state, for the first time in our history. Time chose us back then and we did that,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.
