Скриншот трансляции
Aliaksandr Lukashenka offered the West a chance to “turn the page” on the events of 2020 if it acknowledged its defeat. He made the statement during the Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security. Protests in European countries prompted him to recall the demonstrations that swept across Belarus following the 2020 election. Lukashenka made no secret of his gloating, accusing European governments of violating human rights and seeking to portray French President Emmanuel Macron as a dictator.
“Clearly, the real reasons behind the growing protests in Europe are economic and social problems, runaway increases in prices and tariffs, declining living standards and security, and rampant crime. But we are being cautious about this. We are not celebrating. I tell my journalists and many others: do not rejoice over this. They are right on the other side of the fence, just like Ukraine. And the fence they have built, these ideological standards and everything else, these demonstrations can quickly spill over into neighbouring countries in the age of the internet. So we should not rejoice. We should observe, draw conclusions and learn lessons to make sure this does not happen here,” he said.
He then recalled 2020.
“We went through this in Belarus in 2020. The Ukrainian conflict would have started with us if we had not held our ground here. There would have been a war here. Here! But they lost here, and they refuse to admit it. Although, during talks with the Americans and many Europeans, I said: ‘Guys, I am ready to turn the page, but you lost. You should at least admit it to yourselves, even if not publicly: you lost. Let us work on restoring relations.’ No, instead there was confrontation, the expansion of military operations and sanctions. So what? These sanctions — we are now in the sixth year of them, six years of sanctions — have Russia and us collapsed? No. The world is big,” he said.