“In conditions of total transparency and democratization.” 6 selected fakes from the Big Conversation with Lukashenka

1.On the 2020 presidential election

– Considering that August 9 is on the calendar, anticipating journalistic interest, including in the events of a year ago, I just remind you: then we carried out preparations for the elections and the elections themselves in conditions of total transparency and democratization of political life. The only difference was that some were preparing for fair and fair elections, while others, calling for a coup d’état, were calling to “hammer power”.

“Glasnost and democratization” in Lukashenka’s way looked like this: on the first day of early voting, on August 4, human rights activists noted more than 2000 violations. Independent observers were not allowed to enter polling stations and were detained for allegedly interfering with the work of election commissions. The number of observers at each polling station on the main voting day was reduced to 5 people by the decision of the Central Election Commission.

Observers were not provided with protocols; number of voters did not match with the figures from the protocols, in some polling stations there were twice as many votes counted than those who actually came to vote. At several polling stations in Minsk, the turnout exceeded 100%. At the foreign polling stations, huge queues of people wishing to vote lined up, and not everyone had time to finish the work of the polling stations. There were reports that voters who wore white bracelets – a symbol of protest – were given ballots with an inconspicuous dot that rendered the ballot invalid when processed. At one of the polling stations in Minsk, they recorded on video a moment when the PEC secretary took out packages, most likely with ballots, up a ladder from a second-floor window, with the help of a policeman.

On the eve of the elections passed harsh detentions of supporters of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and participants in the opposition rally “Bike Ride of Solidarity”. On election day, journalists from the Russian independent TV channel Dozhd were detained in Minsk.

EU officially admitted the elections were rigged and does not consider Lukashenko to be the legitimate president.

2. About the fall in GDP

– Last year, the drop in world GDP in some, including the leading, countries was colossal. In my opinion, we only lost 0.1% or 0.2% last year to the previous one. That is, we had a very high level last year. And today we have grown to this high level of the year – about 3.5%. These are good indicators for us. It is clear: everything that happens is largely due to external and internal factors. In foreign markets, prices for products, for other types of goods have grown significantly. And since we did not close last year, we had enough goods to offer our goods to this demand at high prices on the market. Therefore, we got a good result.

In fact, according to the Knoema database system, in 2020 the GDP of Belarus decreased in relation to the level of 2019 by 6.54%. For comparison, in the USA he dropped by 3.49%, in the UK – by 4,32%, in Germany – on 1,52%, in France – on 4,35%, in Italy especially hard hit by the first wave of the pandemic – by 5,99%and in China increased by 2.67%. The Belarusian result looks good only in comparison with the Russian one, where the GDP decreased at 12.77%.

3. About Belarusian export and import

– There would be no happiness, but misfortune helped. All over the world, especially in our fraternal Russia, in the post-Soviet space, Ukraine and so on, people once again saw Belarusian products. Especially food. We have sold about $ 3 billion in food products in six months and we plan to surpass $ 6 billion this year. But this is not our main product. That is, we had something to offer the world with a deficit. And the world bought it. Well, of course, growth in volumes. With such a demand, the growth in volumes simply saved us. Including in terms of the external balance of payments. We have a positive one.

According to the TrendEconomy portal, exports from Belarus in 2020 decreased by 11.45%. This is a little like “volume growth”. As for the “non-main commodity,” strictly speaking, this is so: according to Belstat, chemical products in 2020 accounted for 19.8% of Belarusian exports, while food and agricultural raw materials – only 19.7%. But with the external balance, Lukashenka was wrong again: in 2020, the country exported goods for $ 29,179,441,000, and imported – for $ 32,677,433,100.

4. About WHO and the Belarusian method of combating the pandemic

– Belarus was the only country that took such a step, provided WHO experts with access to health facilities. As a result of this visit, WHO experts, albeit non-publicly, but among themselves recognized: how medical care is organized in Belarus should be talked about in the West so that those who criticize the President hear about it, because the level of treatment and safety in the fight against covid in Belarus – unprecedented. We refused the lockdown, they beat us, threshed us as soon as we wanted, everyone criticized us, only the lazy one did not criticize for our approaches. What is the difference, you might say? The difference, dear friends, is in relation to people.

After last year’s April April visit of WHO experts Lukashenko spoke out somewhat less positive:

– They are [ВОЗ] they have no love for us. It is an international organization that always has enough politics. They walked everywhere, even went to the wards, which I did not expect. They advised us a lot, up to quarantine, possibly a curfew.

On the WHO website given opinion of Patrick O’Connor, head of the group of experts that has visited Belarus:

“Large-scale public health measures, including physical distancing, can help prevent and slow the spread of the virus. Health care facilities can use this time to prepare the resources – health workers, beds, isolated wards, intensive care units and protective equipment – needed to work in the face of increasing numbers of infections. “

Dr. O’Connor recommended that Belarus introduce measures such as postponing major events, including sports, religious and cultural events, quarantining everyone who has come into contact with patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and who may have interacted with carriers of the virus. the introduction of teleworking opportunities, distance learning in schools, universities and other educational institutions, as well as the suspension of businesses that do not provide basic services, reducing travel without a good reason, especially for those at risk. None of this has been done.

According to the cyber-partisans hacker group, which hacked the Belarusian Passport system, the official data on mortality in Belarus are greatly underestimated. Excess mortality in a year and a half of a pandemic turned out 14 times more than the authorities reported. The editors of the Nastoye Vremya channel checked the accuracy of this information and found that none of the citizens included in the random sample, who were listed in the Cyberpartisans’ files as dead, showed signs of life on social networks, and many of them published condolences on their pages. At the same time, before the start of the pandemic, the data discovered by the hackers practically did not differ from the officially published ones.

5. About the political past of the runner Kristina Timanovskaya

– Even knowing about Timanovskaya’s BCHB-shnom past, nevertheless, at the end of 2020, it was decided to assign her a presidential scholarship. Moreover, she was included in the national Olympic team. Do you know why they turned it on? IOC rolled and recommended to ours. And we turned on seven of them at their request – those that were not visible there at all, they could not be turned on. And they still roll on me?

BCHB – this means white-red-white, the color of the old state flag of Belarus, which has become the main symbol of the protest movement. But Timanovskaya, while at the Polish embassy in Tokyo, where she was awaiting a decision on granting her asylum, said:

– I did not take part in any protests, I never spoke about politics, and even here this situation did not concern politics. This situation concerned only the mistake of our leadership, which they made here at the Olympics. Therefore, I did not think that this situation could lead to a political scandal.

It is quite possible to trust these words: she had no reason to hide her participation in the protests; belonging to the Belarusian opposition movement would only improve the attitude of the Polish authorities towards her.

Lukashenka’s statement that the IOC demanded to include specific athletes in the team, and even not showing high results, does not need comments.

6. About public holidays

The President also told why September 17, a new public holiday – National Unity Day – decided not to declare it a day off.

– According to the Constitution, the President defines it – holidays, days off. But let’s be honest: I’ve traveled many countries – as many days off as we have, nowhere else. And in Russia too: as you start from the New Year there, it is a disaster for us.

In Belarus ten public holidays:

January 1 and 2 – New Year;
January 7 – Nativity of Christ (Orthodox Christmas);
March 8 – Women’s Day;
May 1 – Labor Day;
May 9 – Victory Day;
May 11 (according to the calendar of the Orthodox confession) – Radunitsa;
July 3 – Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus (Republic Day);
November 7 – Day of the October Revolution;
December 25 – Christmas (Catholic Christmas).

In the USA there are exactly as many, as, for example, in The Netherlands… IN Of Italy there are 11 national holidays, but each region can add one local to them. In France there are 12 of them, although only one is established at the state level – Labor Day – and the rest are determined by collective agreements between unions of entrepreneurs and workers. IN Of Russia 14 holiday weekends including New Year’s holidays. However, all these countries are noticeably behind from the leaders – Cambodia (28 days off), Iran (26), Sri Lanka and Myanmar (25 each), Azerbaijan and Lebanon (19), Colombia (18), Armenia, Georgia and Tanzania (17).