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16 Nov 2020

Lukashenko describes alternative course of post-election events

Lukashenko describes alternative course of post-election events

MINSK, 16 November (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko spoke about a likely scenario that could have happened after the post-election events in Belarus in August, if his opponents successfully seized the power as he gave Belarusian and foreign political observers an interview on 13 November, BelTA has learned.

“Russia fully realizes that it cannot afford losing Belarus. I often tell Putin: I understand both you and the Ukrainian authorities perfectly well. Losing Belarus… It would mean that in addition to losing Ukraine, you will have short and medium-range missiles deployed close to Smolensk. You know whose missiles that would be,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The president described a scenario that could have unfolded in Belarus, if his opponents were able to implement the blitzkrieg tactic on 9-10 August, after the presidential election. “They understand that they do not have the support of people. But how can they succeed? Let us assume, their blitzkrieg is successful, they seize power, turn to the West, and it sends in their troops on request of the supposedly legitimate government. It is absolutely illegitimate now, but yet their government, which they have recognized, lives in Lithuania and Poland. Here is the scenario. What could anyone have done in that case here? No one could have done anything here. And someone wants to say that Russia could watch this calmly? Even Ukraine would shudder at that plan. This is the point, not that Lukashenko is a dictator, who usurped the power and would not let go. This is nonsense. Only the ignorant think so,” the president stressed.

“You cannot build a happy life in Belarus at NATO’s gunpoint,” he remarked.

My opponents have never wanted a dialogue, Aleksandr Lukashenko pointed out. “They failed at blitzkrieg, failed to sweep to power – they understood that they have no breeding soil to win in Belarus afterwards,” he said.

Speaking about the post-election events, the head of state noted that the failed blitzkrieg started on the main voting day, at 18.00 or 19.00 in the evening, when the polling stations were still open. “They wanted to provoke us in the polling stations: they came there in thousands at 20.00. Why? They thought that we would close the stations at 20.00, giving them a reason to accuse us of not letting people vote, of shutting the door in their face,” the president said.

According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, after Natalya Kochanova, the president's aide in Minsk, informed him about the situation, he immediately gave an order to re-open the polling stations and let everyone vote. “We opened the stations – twenty minutes later there was no one left there. They just needed a show. We invited them to come and vote. But instead those crowds joined the protesters who started waging war on the police and riot police in the two main avenues,” the Belarusian head of state said.

Later, organizers of the protests went through several stages right out from the color revolutions book, involving representatives of various social groups in the unrest, Aleksandr Lukashenko noted. “We know how much they paid and how they staged those shows,” he noted.

Moreover, in the beginning, the opponents demanded the recount of votes, but then forgot about it and started pushing for a new election. Later still, they resorted to giving ultimatums and demanding a voluntary power handover. “They wanted to break the state system and turn Belarus into another direction. You have to understand – they sought neither a new election nor justice,” he stressed.

“What would have happened if there were not me? No one could have preserved this country. It would have been torn apart,” the head of state added.

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