Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko on sanctions: Belarus, Russia will rise like a phoenix from the ashes

MINSK, 31 March (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia will not only survive the sanctions, but will rise like a phoenix from the ashes, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Penza Oblast Governor Oleg Melnichenko on 31 March, BelTA has learned.

“You have come to your land. You should know that Belarus is home for you as you hail from the country that is similar to us geographically, culturally and in many other ways. Belarus is also the country that has preserved to the greatest extent everything that needed to be preserved after the collapse of the great country in which we lived,” the head of state said.

“Let me be honest. We are meeting in a difficult time. This is a time of challenges, but also a time of great opportunities. Probably, we had to go through this period to understand what time we live in and also how we can move forward,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “I think that the last few months, maybe a year and a half, were eye-opening. We realized that no one else can save and protect us but ourselves. Nobody needs us. We realized this earlier. Russia has come to realize it now, probably more clearly than ever. And we are ready to make the most of this time of opportunities despite all the difficulties we are facing today,” the president added.

According to the head of state, the difficulties are primarily caused by the economic and financial sanctions: “These sanctions probably hit Russia more badly than us. It was done by our ‘partners’, as our older brother used to call them. That is the kind of partners they are. Anyway, no one doubts today that we will not only survive, but will rise like a phoenix from the ashes. We had to do this more than once in our history. We would not want to, but we were put in such conditions.”

The head of state noted that 2022 was declared the Year of Historical Memory in Belarus. “We pay serious attention to this. 2020 taught us a lot. You also learned your lessons from 2021, and maybe from 2020. And this bitter experience of what we went through over the past two years helps us to stay focused on the future. I often say jokingly (though this is not really a joke) that these difficulties showed us who is who and pushed us to move in the direction in which we should have moved long ago, including right after the collapse of the Soviet Union,” the president said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that the day before Oleg Melnichenko visited the 11th  outpost ‘Brest’ that bears the name of a native of Penza Oblast, Hero of the Soviet Union Andrei Kizhevatov. “This place shaped my personality to a great extent. This is an amazing place, our place, a place of heroic memory. The border guards fought there with dignity, including Kizhevatov’s outpost. He was a hero. Kizhevatov’s outpost was known all over the Soviet Union. It was the best outpost. I served in a border unit that was called the Brest unit, it was the best in the Soviet Union. People came there to study. Yet, serving in such a unit was tough because of the huge responsibility,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

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