Belarus is not threatened by interethnic conflicts, A. Lukashenko is confident
16/12/20100 views
16 December, Mir / Vladimir Matveev - BELTA/. Belarus is not threatened by interethnic conflicts. This was stated by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, today, answering journalists' questions, BELTA correspondent reports.
In particular, journalists asked the head of state whether Belarus would face problems similar to those existing in Russia due to the growing number of migrants in the republic. Media representatives recalled recent events in Moscow, where a Russian guy was killed and people took to the streets with slogans against Caucasians.
Answering this question, Alexander Lukashenko emphasized that as the president of the country, he must ensure peace and tranquility for the Belarusian people. "But we will not face this (interethnic conflicts. - BELTA editorial note)," he stressed.
According to Alexander Lukashenko, there have always been many migrants in Belarus. "We once cited a figure that up to 150,000 migrants 'drift' in our country annually, whose path to the West we blocked when they were heading to Europe," the President of Belarus noted. "That is, we behave very decently towards our partners: we detain illegal migrants and send them back to where they came from. And we do all this at our own expense."
The head of state noted that sometimes he even reproaches Europe on this issue for starting to teach Belarus democracy, human rights, and other things instead of helping and paying for what our republic undertakes. "These migrants did not come to us, but were heading to the countries of Old Europe. And we are putting up a barrier here," said Alexander Lukashenko. According to him, seeing the reliability of this barrier, the flows of illegal migration have gradually reoriented around Belarus - to the Baltic countries and Ukraine. "But we still have enough of this good. For now, we are maintaining the situation," the head of state noted. "We do not have the critical mass of migrants that perhaps exists in Russia."
The President of Belarus also noted that in Russia the main share of migrants are people who come to earn money. "Medvedev recently said that Russia cannot do without these guest workers, without this labor force," he added. At the same time, Alexander Lukashenko noted that people in Belarus are accustomed to stability and tranquility. "Parents, when they go out on the street with young children, do not think that somewhere at this time it is scary to go out on the street. And we sometimes do not appreciate this. And somehow we start, without migrants, to undermine all this ourselves, we start to destroy all this consciously or not," said the head of state.
According to him, the worst thing is when these processes are created primarily by Belarusian citizens themselves. "You know such people," said the Belarusian leader, noting that their actions can destroy the fragile peace.
And a "flammable mixture," according to Alexander Lukashenko, can be found in abundance, and not necessarily in Belarus. "And they will come from Russia, and from Ukraine, and from further, and from closer, and from the Caucasus, if necessary. People will come who are already making money on this," the head of state noted. - Therefore, migrants are not the reason why this peace and quiet in Belarus may be shattered somewhere and somehow. We ourselves will be to blame for this. We must not allow this to happen. We, the citizens of Belarus, must cherish this peace and tranquility." -0-
BELTA