MINSK, 18 January (BelTA) – Had Aleksandr Lukashenko not come to power in 1994, Belarus could have become a symbiosis of Sarajevo, Chechnya and Transnistria, Director of the EcooM think tank Sergei Musiyenko told journalists as he attended BelTA’s photo exhibition Parallel Worlds, BelTA has learned.
“This exhibition has conjured up the memories and feelings of 30 years ago. When you talk to someone about those times, you realize that back then we did not see a way out of this situation. I felt sorry for the newly elected president; it seemed that he would not be able to pull us out of that situation. Now we live differently and can compare,” said Sergei Musiyenko.
He believes that if not for the president, Belarus could have turned into a symbiosis of Sarajevo, Chechnya and Transnistria. “Now this is abundantly clear. We wouldn’t have been allowed to live another life. But we have been living peacefully for 30 years. This needs to be appreciated. Today in Sarajevo, youth unemployment is around 40%. And unemployment as a whole is one of the highest in Europe. There is practically no investment and the industry is stagnating. The same applies to Ukraine. The dependence of the Ukrainian leadership on foreign interests is apparent. Therefore, had today’s opposition remained in power in Belarus, we could have had a situation worse than in Bosnia and Herzegovina or Ukraine. We would have had a civil war with all the neighboring countries involved in one way or another,” Sergei Musiyenko emphasized.
The think tank director thanked BelTA for arranging the exhibition: “Everything is perfect and well-timed. I think this project will be scaled up because it revives memories of those times. Everyone has some kind of associations.”
BelTA’s photo exhibition Parallel Worlds is running at the National Library in Minsk. According to BelTA Director General Irina Akulovich, the exhibition features the footage from the news agency's archives, which reflect two worlds: the world of the state which is creation and development and the world of the opposition that is destruction and degradation.
