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Yury Khashchevatski: Lukashenka Is Raving In Fever

Yury Khashchevatski: Lukashenka Is Raving In Fever
YURY KHASHCHEVATSKI

The entourage may turn their backs on the dictator.

On February 21, during a meeting with Governor of Arkhangelsk region Igor Orlov, Lukashenka said that he'd just received a call from Vladimir Putin, who offered $300 million compensation for tax maneuver in Russia.

Soon, however, it turned out that the "joy" was premature.

At the beginning, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov evasively stated that "each side of the negotiations has its own calculations" and there would be no compensation from the Russian budget. Later, the deputy head of the Russian Finance Ministry said that the agency "knows nothing about compensation" for Lukashenka.

As a result, on Thursday, February 27, Lukashenko himself was forced to admit that "they had hardly reached an agreement with Putin on compensation of $300 million, before it was not already the case in the evening". The dictator accused the Belarusian and Russian ministers of "misinterpreting" his agreements with Putin.

Charter97.org has talked to a well-known Belarusian documentary filmmaker Yuri Khashchevatski about the fiction and reality in the statements of the authorities.

- Doesn't the whole story remind you of the situation with "Tesla" of Elon Musk? Doesn't the dictator substitute the wish for the reality?

- What wonder, if he does it all the time? He always comes up with some completely impossible things and announces them all over the world. The fact is that Lukashenka is simply an enormous air-monger. I once gave a huge interview to Moskovsky Komsomolets and called him "a genius of lies". He loves lying and always does it.

A lot of people may not remember, but at one time, when Hennadz Karpenka died, he said from the rostrum that Liudmila Karpenka (Karpenka's wife - editor's note) had visited him and was crying that Karpenka had no shoes, nothing to bury him in. All these years that the man has been leading the country, he has been raving in fever. And he finds all sorts of pictures in it that spur his imagination even more.

When "The Ordinary President" came out, in which we showed the public his talk about Hitler... It had been broadcast on the radio and we found the German reporter who gave us the tape. After that, Lukashenka was saying that it had been done on special equipment by order of the CIA or Salidarnast. And he was saying it with such confidence that for some people it was impossible not to believe this man. He was sitting there and insolently lying. Many years later, he confessed, saying, yes, but what gives?

This is a man who has been in power for at least 26 years, raving in fever. And the fact that Musk presented him with a Tesla, and the fact that Putin gives him $300 million again, and many other things. It will continue. This delirium is incurable.

- Traditionally, Lukashenka likes to blame everyone but himself. This time he appointed ministers, who allegedly "misunderstood" his agreement with Putin, as guilty ones. In your opinion, what is it: the desire to avoid responsibility or the Russian side and the officials negotiating with it start ignoring Lukashenka?

- They have been ignoring him for a long time. I think they have given such an unspoken order there, which the officials well understand. The Russian elite is just starting to bully him now. At the same time, we must realize that Lukashenka is to blame himself for creating such a system.

It is another thing that he always blames someone else, but not him. Although in this situation he has fallen into a terrible trap. He had been getting free cheese for 24 years, and finally, the mousetrap banged shut. The horror is that together with him, it shut for the country.

So what's the next step? Those in the West and Belarus who say that Lukashenka is the only one who "protects us from Russia," say that today he is very seriously "defending sovereignty", are very seriously mistaken. No! Lukashenka is by no means defending and unable to preserve the sovereignty of Belarus for the simple reason that his approach is the deepest mistake, which he and we are paying for.

He has been told for 25 years that we must not go into this trap of Russia, we must build our economy and raise our entrepreneurs and businessmen. But Lukashenka has not done it, because give the will to people and they will re-elect him. Thus, he pushed Belarus away from the path of normal development and led it to the point where Russia can make serious claims and then try to do with us what it wants. They want one thing: spaces, opportunities, people, takeovers.

And of course, Lukashenka is a coward and does not consider himself guilty. He has never admitted his mistakes, and he always blames others.

- The problems with Russian oil that have arisen since the beginning of the year seem to have caused a domino effect: Lukashenka is failing in all spheres. The GDP figures for 2019 have gone smash, there is no money to pay the workers at the leading industrial enterprises, for the first time in the pre-election year the salaries of public sector workers have been sharply reduced starting from January... In your opinion, are these coincidences, or is this year really extremely unsuccessful for Lukashenka?

- I think this year will be a bad one for the authorities. For Lukashenka, first of all. I hope that his inner circle will start turning away from him. If earlier he used to pay and feed them from this oil rent, which was coming from Russia, now it's over and the "feeder" is going to weaken now. Naturally, those who we call the "elite" have a number of questions for Lukashenka.

Secondly, there will not be enough money for crazy projects, for burying money in agriculture. And he wants to buy a new plane and build a new residence, to surround himself with some other luxury. He can't stop. He's stealing everything in sight. Look at the cost of his residence, the cost of his family's services, the cost of planes, Maybachs and Teslas. This man has an irrepressible appetite. A leader with this diagnosis is a danger to the country.

- Have the Belarusians got a chance for change this year and how can they use it?

- I have always given my forecasts with great hope and always hoped for the Belarusian society, first of all, for the elite.

Certainly, the window of opportunity is opening; it is time for everyone to realize at last who is at the head of state and what danger he represents for us. And that there will be very difficult days and months and years before it will be possible to remedy this situation and come back to normal.

I do not know whether the Belarusian society is ready to take advantage of the window of opportunity that is opening. I want to hope again that it is ready.

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