politicians-from-belarus

"Belarus will continue to protect its economic interests in the face of Western sanctions."

"Today he (Lukashenka) won by the hands of "gorillas" in black masks. Already it is clear that there will be no Parliament in Belarus, no democratic election. The remains of a free press will disappear. A presidential Junta will govern the country... Well, we can congratulate Belarusians on the previous elections. Worse cannot be done. For ourselves, for society and for future generations."

"Publishers have no tight to saturate the book market with works which have no demand, which do not get sold. It would be unnatural, both economically and also, probably, morally."

"After making public the gruesome discoveries made at the wasteland near Minsk, dozens of reports appeared in the press about similar mass graves uncovered in all regional centres of the Republic and many lesser towns. Who lies in these graves, who were the people shot in all those years, and - most importantly - who were the murderers? We have no answer yet to these questions, and one gets an impression that there are powerful forces not interested at all in such answers ever being given."

"Bureaucracy and culture are incompatible. Bureaucracy needs power, and culture is not wanted by it."

"Bykov's prose reminds one of a tightly compressed steel spring that, swiftly uncoiling and straightening itself out, carries such a charge of inexhaustible energy that one feels he has lived his whole life together with his heroes."

"Vasil Bykov is a very courageous and uncompromising writer, rather of the Solzhenitsyn stamp."

"Ukraine has managed to preserve their language and culture, and national pride, which made it possible to assemble the force that could stand up to Russia. Belarusians, on the contrary, had been robbed, taking the national history and make sure that by 1917 the country did not exist, and all that it has today — thanks to Russia. People are deprived of their history and national identity, will not go to the square to fight for something that does not feel or understand."

"You know, there are some people who were also put this decree in a difficult position, but still decided to pay a "tax". They think to themselves: let it be like to be. Let not mistaken, it came to nothing lead. If we do not protect each other, from the regime of the state of the power, to help each other, then no one will help us. It is the law by which our ancestors lived. If your relative is bad — all the relatives came to the rescue. If your neighbour is bad — all quit their job and help bad one. If your friend is bad — all considered it their duty to help. We need to stand behind each other as a wall. Only then we can survive!"

"Suffering makes us human. A person without suffering is just grass."

"The nationalism of a great nation inevitably degenerates into chauvinism and imperialism. The nationalism of a small nation is aimed primarily at the survival of the nation among others."

"In a society where every third person is a communist and every second person is an informer, it is difficult to expect to win by democratic means."

"The Communist-Fascists, who are managers of the press, remove unwanted editors and monopolize the printing base, as it is widely practiced today in Belarus."

"The signing of the Union Treaty is not just sad. This is the crime of the century. This, of course, is the genocide of the Belarusian nation. This is the end of Belarusian history."

"The pro-imperial dictatorship of Lukashenka keeps the direction of unification with Russia, destroying the national culture and the Belarusian language."

"I cannot write in Minsk. Firstly, I have a cold apartment. I will die there with my sick lungs soon. Because the presidential decree introduced the maximum temperature in Minsk... He [Lukashenka] does not need Bykau. He has a close-knit and strong cohort of own writers, who write his biographies. They write about him, describe his life. And it's enough for Lukashenka. He does not perceive anything else. The things that Lukashenko is doing are aimed at the complete elimination of the sovereignty of Belarus. He completely enslaves the people."

"Sedov (Trotsky's son) spoke a lot about the necessity of the maximum, the closest possible connections with Tukhachevsky, inasmuch as, in Trotsky's opinion, Tukhachevsky and the military group were to be the decisive force of the counter-revolutionary action. During the conversation it was also revealed that Trotsky entertained fears regarding Tukhachevsky's Bonapartist tendencies. In the course of one conversation Sedov said that Trotsky in this respect even expressed the fear that if Tukhachevsky successfully accomplished a military coup, it was possible that he would not allow Trotsky into Moscow. . . . Trotsky therefore proposed that during the coup d'etat we should everywhere place our own people, people who would be faithful to Trotskyism and who could be relied upon as regards vigilance."

"Without a language, there is no nation. Without culture, there is no people and cannot be an Independence, an own sovereign state."

"Andrey Gromyko, a key senior member of the Politburo, who had been Foreign Minister since 1957, maintained continuity in foreign policy. An expert on relations with the USA, where he served at Washington from 1939, before becoming Delegate to the United Nations from 1946 to 1949, Gromyko saw the world almost exclusively through the prism of Soviet-American relations. He did not seek a breakthrough with the USA. Instead, under Gromyko, Soviet foreign policy was nearly as rigid as he was unsmiling. Certainly, there was no bold initiative comparable to Nixon’s approach to China, nor, subsequently, any Soviet ability to retrieve the situation in China. At the same time, there were changes and openings before the rise of Gorbachev. In September 1984, Gromyko travelled to Washington to meet Reagan, and in January 1985 the Politburo decided to engage again in arms negotiations with the USA."

"[The world may end up] under a Sword of Damocles … on a tightrope over the abyss."

"Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kowtow before any United States proconsul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony."

"Vladimir Putin has benefitted throughout his time as Russian president by the constant references in Russian and foreign media to Alyaksandr Lukashenka as “the last dictator in Europe,” an epithet which distracts attention from the fact that Putin is far more repressive than the Belarusian dictator. But now there is new evidence that Putin is providing his fellow dictator with the kind of assistance that allows Lukashenka to repress his own people and remain in power. The Kremlin leader has put the name of more than 4700 Belarusians on Russia’s wanted list (mediazonaby.com/article/2025/04/09/wanted_again)."

"I cannot write in . Firstly, I have a cold apartment. I will die there with my sick lungs soon. Because the presidential decree introduced the maximum temperature in Minsk... He [Lukashenka] does not need Bykau. He has a close-knit and strong cohort of own writers, who write his biographies. They write about him, describe his life. And it's enough for Lukashenka. He does not perceive anything else. The things that Lukashenko is doing are aimed at the complete elimination of the sovereignty of Belarus. He completely enslaves the people."

"People who speak Belarusian can not do anything except talk on it, because it is impossible to express anything great in Belarusian. The Belarusian language is a poor language. There are only two great languages in the world. Russian and English."

"Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus has the dubious distinction of being Europe's last remaining dictator. He was popularly elected in 1994 and immediately began consolidating his power and eliminating any shred of democracy or free speech. As he himself once said, "I look at our old people and the middle-aged generation who are nostalgic for the Soviet Union, and they can see that Lukashenko is a good chap.""

"Lukashenko truly believes the world does not notice his participation in crimes against Ukraine. That is why he cynically wishes us a ‘peaceful sky’ while allowing deadly rockets to hit us."

"“The Jews managed to force the world to remember the Holocaust,” Lukashenko declared. “The entire world grovels before them and gives in to them. They are afraid to say a single word out of place.” By contrast, he continued, “[W]e are tolerant and likable. We left things alone until it got to the point where others started attacking us and the memory of our efforts.”"

"My position and the state will never allow me to become a dictator, but an authoritarian style of rule is characteristic of me, and I have always admitted it. You need to control the country, and the main thing is not to ruin people's lives."

"We have rigged the latest election. 93.5 per cent have voted for Lukashenko. But they say it is not a European outcome. We have made it 86 per cent."

"I look at Obama, a young man, a good-looking person. That is my first impression, I feel sorry for him. He looks 100% like Lukashenko, when I came to power after the downfall of the Soviet Union. The store shelves were empty, a severe financial crisis."

"Aggression has been committed, and the country's leadership, not only Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed. And how was he killed? Well, if they had shot him in a battle, it's one thing, but they humiliated and tormented him, they shot at him, they violated him when he was wounded, they twisted his neck and arms, and then they tortured him to death. It's worse than the Nazis once did. Besides, the United States, Italy, France and Germany have up to $150 billion of Libyan money now. They are very interested to grab this wealth. Everything will be even worse in Libya, because it has colossal deposits of resources, and everyone has rushed there to grab those riches."

"If someone is a lesbian, it's man's fault."

"As for those who are screaming about dictatorship...when I hear that come up I think that it is better to be a dictator - than to be gay."

"I don't really understand what a dictator is."

"I am the last and only dictator in Europe."

"They say that even bad publicity is good publicity."

"I shan't be holding on to this job for life. As soon as people decline my services, I'll put my briefcase under my arm and I'll be off."

"I view the collapse of the Soviet Union as a disaster that entailed and still brings about negative consequences around the world. We got nothing good from this break-up."

"Minsk will become the capital of the United States in two years."

"We'll massacre all the scum that you [the West] have been financing. Oh, you're upset we've destroyed all your structures! Your NGOs, whatever they are, that you've been paying for."

"Putin and I once said in Saint Petersburg that we will refit Belarusian Sukhoi aircraft among other things so that they could carry nuclear weapons. Do you think we talk nonsense? Everything is ready!"

"From Oct. 6, all price increases are forbidden. Forbidden! From today. Not from tomorrow, from today. So that prices aren't driven up in the next 24 hours."

"At five o'clock in the evening he called me and says: 'Alexander Grigorievich, I accept all your conditions. But what should I do? If we stop, they'll start whacking us." I said, "They won't. I guarantee you. I'll take care of that." We were in contact with the Russian leadership, the FSB was mainly dealing with this issue, with Bortnikov. I simply urged them not to do it. Bortnikov is a smart man. He said: "Alexander Grigorievich, well, I'm not a fool, I understand what can happen," the President said. He said: "Alexander Grigorievich, I'm not a fool, I realise what can happen. If they stop somewhere, the column will tighten... It will pile up... So that there will be no desire and temptation to attack it here. We promised: it won't happen. I told Prigozhin: "This is a guarantee." "What next?" - "Up to the point that I will take you to Belarus and guarantee you complete safety. And your guys, who have advanced here in this column." - "Yes, I believe you. I believe you." - "Good, we'll act in that direction.""

"To answer this question directly: I don't have to provide security for Prigozhin. First of all. Secondly, we never talked about it that way."

"I wish luck to you and your nation that loves you, as the election results we can see testify."

"The pro-imperial dictatorship of Lukashenka keeps the direction of unification with Russia, destroying the national culture and the Belarusian language."

"I have found yet another friend here. And with such a friend we will together form a team, like a soccer team. This will be a fighting team."