Фото: president.gov.by
Aliaksandr Lukashenka said that cutting the operating time of street lighting by 10–15 minutes nationwide produces savings comparable to the cost of raising pensions or to spending on the construction of facilities for the agro-industrial sector. He made the remarks at a meeting with the leadership of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday.
According to Lukashenka, pensions in Belarus were increased by 10% from February 1, and the annual savings from adjusting street lighting schedules are close in scale to those expenditures. He said that even a slight reduction in lighting time in large cities delivers a noticeable financial effect.
“Kukharev [Minsk city executive committee chairman Uladzimir Kukharau] switched the lights off 15 minutes earlier, or even 10 — my God, they compared it to Ukraine! Ten minutes! And nobody calculated that these 10–15 minutes, as Vladimir Yevgenyevich says, over the course of a year amount, in cost terms, to three dairy farms and seven calf health centers, as it is fashionable to say now. But the most important thing: from February 1 — I signed the decree — pensions were raised. Not much, by 10%, but pensions were increased for pensioners under these conditions. If you take this saving over a year, it is practically that increase. You can endure ten minutes,” he said.
Lukashenka said that in Minsk and other large population centers, in addition to streetlights, there are additional sources of illumination — light from residential buildings, offices and shop windows — and therefore, in his view, changes to street lighting schedules do not lead to a significant deterioration in visibility.
“Alyona Syrova [STV correspondent Aliona Syrova] was outraged: it is dark to drive a car. And someone was feeling their way along, touching houses. I do not understand: how in Minsk can you — switch the lights off, switch them on at the wrong time — and lose orientation for 10 minutes? I mean spatial orientation. How can you lose it if all five-storey buildings, twenty-storey buildings and so on have lights?
Listen, even I early this morning — I thought, let me look out the window, went outside a second time — I thought, when can you actually switch the lights off? We should give credit: finally, after Turchyn, the governor of the Minsk region switched the lights off in the villages around the president’s village. Thank you. I am not saying this for that reason — foolishness is everywhere. Just look at when to switch them on and when to switch them off. Especially in Minsk — Minsk is mostly well lit. They were feeling their way along — it turns out Vladimir Yevgenyevich switches the lights on and off in the city by pressing one button. Everything is centralized,” he said.
Lukashenka suggested considering the use of photoelectric relays instead of fixed schedules for switching lighting on and off.
“And then — what conclusion should be drawn? The length of the day is different. Yesterday the day was 7 hours 2 minutes, today it is 7 hours 7 minutes or five minutes, for example. So maybe we should install not a time relay but a photo relay? Set some level of light, install it on a photo relay — and it will switch the lights on and off by itself. But if you set a time relay for switching off at 9:15 — that’s a disaster. It will switch the lights off at 9:15 even when, a month later, it will already be daylight at 9:15. You understand what I am talking about. So this should be the main thing for us, and the savings are substantial,” he said.
Lukashenka said the issue had been artificially amplified from abroad by his opponents.
“And then I thought: where did this topic come from? Psychological operations by the fugitives. They are the ones who threw it in from there — from space — and compared it to Ukraine. Where can we be compared with ‘democratic’ Ukraine, a ‘totalitarian’ state. People should think about what they are doing. That’s just so you understand. And then I thought: well, if once again there is such a psychological operation — on the one hand, and on the other hand — three dairy farms and seven health centers or a 10% annual pension increase for pensioners, I would again agree to those 10–15 minutes,” he said.
He recalled how various decisions were made in Soviet times, including the transition to winter and summer time.
“In Soviet times, remember, they changed time zones and other things to gain an hour. Across the country — an hour of daylight — that was enormous savings. And what about us? Everything is lit and lit, because, as I said, nobody goes to Moscow for natural gas.
And some people surprised me yesterday: they think that if a nuclear power plant was built — that’s it for centuries, and no fuel or anything is needed. No, guys. One fuel loading costs $150 million — as builders used to report to me earlier, now probably $200 million. And this is ongoing: over five years, in portions, we remove uranium rods from the reactor and load new ones. That is a lot of money. Everything costs money. So if you are ready to pay, you can light it up even now. You can light it,” he said.
On February 3, during a meeting on the Vitsebsk region, Lukashenka expressed dissatisfaction with how street lighting is switched on and off. He said the lights are on when it is already daylight outside, which, in his view, could lead to war.
The following day, a meeting was held in Belarus under the auspices of the Ministry of Energy to adjust street lighting schedules. It was decided, together with local authorities, to develop a unified approach to these schedules. That day, street lighting in Minsk was switched on at around 7 p.m., as reported, triggering a strong reaction from residents of the capital.