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Mikalai Statkevich About Tragedy In Minsk On July 3: It's Result Of One-Man Reign

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Mikalai Statkevich About Tragedy In Minsk On July 3: It's Result Of One-Man Reign
PHOTO: NASHA NIVA

Sooner or later, the flaws of the system governing the army and the country would have to come out.

This was stated by one of the leaders of the Belarusian National Congress, presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich, in an interview with Charter97.org, commenting on the July 3 fireworks in Minsk, which killed a woman and injured about 10 people:

- You know, we were always close to such tragedies during the so-called "parades."

At first, a tank hit a tree and a lamp post in Minsk, and yesterday a tank almost hit people. In the end, there was a truly tragic incident.

This is all the consequences of the authorities' inadequate assessment of their capabilities and those of a small country, when they organize a military show on a festive day, which they themselves chose as their main one.

We have a small, poor country. The allowance of our army is very modest. The main resources go to people in shoulder straps, the so-called "guards", whom we have too many.

And once a year, this army is forced to perform such large-scale shows. They take the old machinery out of the garages and hangars - and the soldiers are not trained because money is needed for training. If they need to buy something new, for example, the fireworks, they take the cheapest.

Similarly, all the bosses understand: if they buy something more expensive, the "guards" will oppose: maybe they bought it for an unknown amount of money and got a bribe at that.

And what had been hiding for many years, unfortunately, broke out on July 3. My condolences to the families of the deceased woman and to the people who suffered.

But we must understand that all this is the result of years of the rule of one man who has been doing his show for years for the people's money. And which he finances, hoping to get something out of it before his next political campaigns. The money goes to a dubious show, and the army remains underfunded - and as a result, all these problems have tragically broken out.

- To what extent do the Russian Iskanders, shown by Lukashenka at the parade, strengthen the independence of Belarus?

- I think that the demonstration of missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and heavy Russian bombers shows that the Belarusian army is essentially part of the Russian military machine. And the Belarusian state under Lukashenka became a vassal of Russia.

Russia is using this parade, allegedly in honor of "independence," to demonstrate our dependence on it. And from Minsk, from Lukashenka's parade, it threatens our neighbors. It shows that it can easily deploy strategic threats here. That it can easily use our territory for military purposes and do so to the applause of the ruling regime.

I understand that a lot of nations liberated Belarus, and it's one thing to invite one "box" of soldiers to the parade. But when strategic weapons, which can carry nuclear warheads, are demonstrated here, it is just a direct threat to the neighbors from the so-called "Belarusian balcony".

This parade has demonstrated the dependence, showed that Russia uses us as a strategic balcony to threaten neighboring countries, while the Belarusian ruling elite takes it for granted.

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