MINSK, 26 November (BelTA) - Footage of U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to Belarus in 1994 was shown in the film "Time Chose Us" on the Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA has learned.
At the beginning of 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton arrived in Belarus. The visit got a lot of attention. Before Minsk, Bill Clinton visited Kiev, from where he flew to Moscow. Agreements were signed to eliminate strategic nuclear warheads in Ukraine.
Clinton stayed in Minsk for six hours. The U.S. president together with war veterans laid a wreath on Victory Square. At that time, it was not considered shameful for Western politicians. Victory was not divided on the basis of nationality, although attempts to distort history were always there.
Belarusian statesperson Liliya Ananich, the then chief specialist with the media department at the Belarusian Culture and Press Ministry in 1994, accompanied the wife of the U.S. president during her visit to Hospital No. 4 in Minsk.
“The president's wife was wearing a fox hat and very modest boots. I thought then why she decided to put on such a modest outfit. Later I came to a conclusion that probably they considered us very poor and showing off would be a bad taste. The hospital received humanitarian aid from Mrs Clinton. Today Belarus is capable of providing humanitarian aid, and deals with all the problems itself,” Liliya Ananich said.
Back then, they installed for some reason a bench named after Clinton near the burial site in Kuropaty. The U.S. president signed an agreement on mutual protection of investments with Chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus Stanislav Shushkevich.
“This does not mean that America planned to invest in Belarus' development. It wanted to create competitors for our enterprises. Enterprises were shut down, people were left jobless. And they [Americans] did not bring any money or investments here. They wanted to bring in their protégé. That was in fact a look-and-see trip with an ultimate goal of imposing external control in Belarus. They wanted a puppet government that could be controlled. That was the purpose of the visit,” said Belarusian statesman Vladimir Andreichenko, who was Vitebsk Oblast Governor in 1994-2008.
Bill Clinton's visit was supposed to feel genuine and cordial. But details speak volumes. Bill Clinton never tried draniki or even touched any of the delicacies offered by the Belarusians. He enjoyed the food he brought from America, drank coffee and ate right in the car. The U.S. president clearly did not trust the new Belarusian government.
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