Belarus under Alexander Lukashenko has been called “the last dictatorship in Europe” by various Western leaders.
On October 9 Lukashenko gave a long interview to the journalists from “The Independent” and BBC, in which it was Belarusian president’s turn to express his opinion about the Western democracies.
Here is a short excerpt from this interview in which Alexander Lukashenko speaks about the current situation in Syria.
[For those who cannot read the annotations, below is the transcript of the video]
Transcript of the interview with Alexander Lukashenko
Journalist: What is your attitude to Bashar Assad?
Lukashenko: Excellent! I have met him very many times. If you would meet him – you would undoubtedly like him. Absolutely European civil man.
J.: He is just doing not really European…
A.L.: This is YOU who is doing. What are you doing there? What is your business there? You are supplying arms, your special forces are there. Supplying arms, giving money. Do you think someone would fight there without money and arms? How is it that suddenly someone came and messed up the country?
J.: What will be the outcome of the situation in Syria?
A.L.: For you it will be disastrous.
J.: No.. for Syrians, for Syrian people..
A.L.: Catastrophic. For the Syrian people this is already disaster. You are destroying yet another country.
J.: So, you think that overthrowing regimes in all countries was wrong? Starting from Iraq, Afghanistan, the same Syria, Lybia, Egypt, Tunisia.
A.L.: You called it incorrectly. It was the crime! It was the crime.
J.: Even though many people rebelled against the leaders?
A.L.: It was the crime. My evaluation is univocal. And you will pay for that!
J.: What do you mean?
A.L.: The things that are happening. You are afraid of terrorism, but you already got it. You created it with your own hands. You will see yet what will happen. You should not do it. You shouldn’t. Nobody needs your democracy through killings. The millions of killed people and their relatives … and you know what it means for Muslims… blood revenge… they will never forgive it. N-E-V-E-R! You don’t think what can happen tomorrow.
Comments of Russian netizens
[Note: Alexander Lukashenko has a nickname "bac'ka" translated as "daddy"]
akaVano: He knows talking nicely, but what’s the use?Говорить красиво он умеет, а толку?
UnSol: Democracy became the synonym of aggression.Демократия стала синонимом агрессии.
[Note: Botox is one of Putin's nicknames]
БАБСЛЕЙ: Respect to Bac’ka! Says right things in the face!Респект Батьке!Все правильно говорит в лицо!
Evgenex: Putin says similar things to the foreign media, but more “democratically”.
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Pretty crazy little speech. Nothing like a government leader looking into the media camera and say, “Come and get it, if you can, but while you’re doing it….boom!”
There is little doubt that the USA, and the West in general, is quite the hypocrite when it comes to slaughtering the innocent, but having this pointed out by a tyrant is just laughable. Lukashenko should worry less about whats going on in Syria and more about how oppressed his people are. While the old Belorussian citizens seem OK with his rule, all the younger citizens are completely outraged at him and his policies (at least all, yes ALL, the younger people I know, and there are a lot of them).
His faults aside, the man is allowed to give his opinion – especially when some ask for it.
In this particular excerpt it’s very hard to disagree with Lukashenko – no matter what your political preferences are.
Quite indicative is that on YouTube this video [so far] has 10 up-votes and 0 down-votes…
I’m not Lukashenko’s biggest fan, but I agree with his every word there.
“There is little doubt that the USA, and the West in general, is quite the hypocrite when it comes to slaughtering the innocent, but having this pointed out by a tyrant is just laughable.”
I don’t remember Belarus invading any country recently. The USA, and the West, is also quite hypocritical about domestic political repression – when the Spanish police or Saakashvili’s henchmen beat and tear gas people in the streets you hear nothing of it in the West, but when three girls are arrested in Russia, it’s a crucifixion.
Please. The West has killed tens of millions since the second World War – from the jungles of Colombia and Central America, to the Ivory Coast and the DRC, to Iraq and through Indonesia. But still we have the brave Western internet trolls who can somehow comment on what they imagine (and by imagine, I mean repeat-what-NPR reports) is going on in other countries while their leaders commit acts of savagery in their name.
What you say to The President of Belarus – “take care of your own house first” – applies to you a million times over, you worm. Our Western hypocrisy knows no bounds. None at all.
To every American – liberals to conservatives alike – who romanticizes what is happening in Syria is a “revolution” should take one moment to consider the reality – murder, car bombs, massacres, infiltration of Al Qaeda, threats of invasion – these things are so far from your Western mentality you can’t even imagine it. There is no revolution there, just a bunch of Western-armed psychopaths destroying a country.
Very well said.
Don’t touch Bac’ka in this case! He’s right on 1000%!
As presented in this RFE/RL piece, Luka doesn’t do as well in my opinion (when contrasted to the above post to this comments section):
http://www.rferl.org/content/lukashenka-belarus-russia-stalin-lenin/24742548.html
I know it’s very old now – but the ‘journalist’ interviewing Lukashenko was not a journalist at all but Evgeny Lebedev, the Londongrad-based son of Aleksander Lebedev (of KGB and Novaya gazeta fame).
Evgeny is, officially, the owner of the London Evening Standard and the national daily The Independent – although no-one doubts that the money to buy them was his father’s.
The BBC’s Natalya Antelava sat in on the interview, asking no questions oddly, for BBC 2′s Newsnight programme (See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20030346) .
Does it matter? Yes. It flatters Lukashenko to be seen batting away the lame questions of a foreign journalist – and it’s totally different when you realize he’s only batting away the questions of a millionaire playboy playing at being a journalist who was, Antelava reports, ‘once labelled London’s latest “It boy”‘.
The comment ‘Only Bac’ka can talk in such way to Western journalists’ becomes obvious nonsense when you realise the ‘Western journalist’ is a Russian playboy.