Lukashenka Says New Generation Is Not Ready To “Take And Hold The Country”

Reform.news Editorial Team · 18 September 2026, 08:01

https://reform.news/en/lukashenka-says-new-generation-is-not-ready-to-take-and-hold-the-country/

Aliaksandr Lukashenka spoke at the “Youth. Belarus. Future” youth forum on Thursday evening. He once again said he was not clinging to power and was even ready to hand the country over to the new generation, but that it was not yet ready for this.

“They want to put us under the whip. I am not exaggerating the situation; I have no need to. I am simply warning you, as future leaders of the country, who, as I have already said, must ensure sovereignty and independence. Put us under the whip. More or less the way our, as they call themselves, government and offices in exile are operating now. Over the past centuries, especially the last 30 years, we have accumulated quite a few of these offices made up of fugitives in exile, princes, magnates and other rulers on different continents, who still do not understand that on our land there is only one master — the people of Belarus. I promise you that this is how it will be.

The people brought me to power despite everything that was happening. And never believe that Lukashenka, quote, is clinging to power with his hands turned blue. God help those who say that.

I have had enough of this power, more than enough. The only question is: are you capable today of taking the country and holding on to it? If you are, then take over tomorrow. To be honest, I cannot yet give a positive answer to this question. Don’t take offense”, he said, addressing those gathered.

Lukashenka’s speech was also filled with accusations against the United States of imperialism. At the same time, he stressed that he was not being asked to change his position toward Russia as part of the negotiating process.

Lukashenka also outlined his view of the events between the two world wars, when Western Belarus was part of Poland following the Treaty of Riga. According to him, Poland defeated the Red Army in 1920 with Western assistance. During the interwar period, Belarusians in Western Belarus faced persecution and were unable to study in their own language.

Lukashenka does not consider the Red Army’s campaign against Poland, which began on Sept. 17, 1939, two weeks after Nazi Germany attacked the country, to have been a war. According to him, Stalin and Hitler did not divide anything under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, whose secret protocol provided for the division of territories in Eastern Europe, and “Soviet troops returned what belonged to Belarusians and to that vast country in which we lived.”