Alyaksandr Lukashenka once again spoke about reforming state governance in an interview with RT. He brought up the topic while answering a question from Rick Sanchez about the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“As for the shock after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the choice of methods to treat that shock, in principle, after the collapse of the Union we all started in the same way. We received a lot of advice from the West, they prompted us, told us how to build our lives. And as it turns out today, all of that was lies, Western lies.
I think about this a lot and have already consulted with some specialists about how we should live going forward. Looking ahead, I will say that we need to seriously think about governing the country. Perhaps even carry out a reform of state governance, using the experience of the old system, the one the Westerners advised us to fight against, especially your Americans,” Lukashenka said.
As a reminder, after 2020 Lukashenka also spoke a great deal about governance reform, and the Constitution was changed. The All-Belarusian People’s Assembly received a new status and now convenes annually. He also spoke a lot about sharing powers with officials, although in practice this was either formal in nature or, in Lukashenka’s own words, together with powers his subordinates also receive responsibility, which they do not actually want.
According to Lukashenka, in the last century the West demanded a struggle against the CPSU.
“A struggle against, in my opinion, Article 6 of the Constitution, where the Communist Party was the leading and guiding force of our society. Despite all the shortcomings of party building and the work of the Communist Party — I myself was a member of the Communist Party at one time — everything was not simple. You could say that inside the party I was a kind of constructive oppositionist.
My position came from real life. And besides, this is a principle I still follow to this day. If you do not know what to do, and I have often spoken about this, you need to go to the people, they will show you. And if you are not blind, they may not tell you directly, but you should see what needs to be done tomorrow based on life itself.
So, the Westerners recommended to us, first of all, a multiparty system, then pluralism of opinions, and so on, and so forth. They recommended it to us, and we followed it. Of course, Russia was in the vanguard, Yeltsin’s Russia led by Yeltsin. I am not giving him an assessment here. He had many positive qualities. But everyone else followed behind.
Into our minds they implanted a cult of money and prosperity. And you know, many people, having lost their bearings, grabbed the most attractive pieces so they could be prosperous, rich, and so on. You know what this led to, especially in Russia. Those who could, those who were closest to power, grabbed the oil, the gas companies — and enriched themselves considerably. We were following the same path.
But as a member of parliament, I saw all of this. And God saved me in that I was not a supporter of that course. I voted against the collapse of the Soviet Union. Perhaps the Soviet Union needed reform, yes, it did. We had enough foolishness, just as you do in America now: there is a lot of good, but there is also plenty of foolishness. What will this lead to? Look at the experience of our Soviet Union. And I spoke openly about this in parliament. You can look it up.
I was against that course. And when I became president, even without the power that I have now, I began reforming the country so as not to allow what happened in Russia at that time. Foolish reforms were harshly отменены. We began living according to our means, relying on the possibilities of the Russia that had then been torn apart. And we got what we got. You probably know our system well,” he said.