Report of Grodno Oblast Governor Vladimir Karanik, Belarus President’s Aide – Inspector for Grodno Oblast Yuri Karayev.

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko he heard out a report of Chairman of the Grodno Oblast Executive Committee Vladimir Karanik and Belarus President’s Aide – Inspector for Grodno Oblast Yuri Karayev on 22 November.

It is essential to step up preparations for the spring sowing campaign, the head of state said during the meeting. “Good results are the priority. The year is coming to an end, I have seen the daily report: you are lagging behind in fall ploughing. It will be impossible to plough when the weather is frosty. Therefore, you need to step up efforts now,” he said.

According to the president, the future harvest depends on this work. “We need to start sowing as early as possible in the spring. The weather is good, there is enough moisture in the soil. Therefore, your agrarians need to step up their efforts,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko inquired how the regional economy is doing, especially in the face of sanctions pressure from the West. "They have imposed the sanctions against us. They are trying to strangle us economically, trying to tighten the noose around us. So what's the situation? What kind of support is needed?" the president asked.

The head of state also touched on the export. He noted that this year the situation in foreign markets has been favorable for Belarusian enterprises. They pursued a smart policy during the pandemic, Aleksandr Lukashenko stated. "If the enterprises had gone into full lockdown, the results would have been different.  Europe has gone into lockdowns again. Let them. We will sell them whatever we can. I'm not gloating in this regard. You need to help people, there’s no other way. Today we helped someone, tomorrow they will help us. Therefore, we need to help," the president emphasized.

Speaking about investments and new projects, the head of state proposed to pay attention to the woodworking industry. Aleksandr Lukashenko recalled that several years ago Belarus began to modernize these industries. Recently the government has been instructed to work out options for the construction of new enterprises: the existing ones are not coping with the processing demand. "We need to process everything. Some forests have overmatured, and there is a lot of such forests today," he said. "Therefore, we need to promote woodworking, especially since we know how to do it. The demand for timber will always be there."

"You also need to look into this. We need to build several more wood processing enterprises,” the president believes. “We can manufacture everything - from pellets to furniture. There are no forests to the south of us. The whole world will use woodworking products, they will do without it. These are houses, furniture, and so on."

At the meeting the head of state gave an instruction to pay close attention to the need to properly organize the everyday life of refugees at the border and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “You’ve been pulled into this problem. I’d like to say you are doing a good job organizing, so to say, the everyday life of these poor refugees, who are concentrated in this logistics center. As far as I can understand, humanitarian aid is properly delivered. You collect it, distribute it over there, everything is under control.”

The head of state also expressed gratitude to the owners of the logistics center, who let the refugees use the facility. The president pointed out that if a private owner helps with this matter, then the state should support it somehow since the private owner’s business is losing revenue due to the shutdown of the logistics center.

Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that the refugees now have access to shop vans and warned against “some private businesses toying with the prices”. At the same time he is convinced that there will not be such problems.

“Clothe, feed, warm, and provide medical support. The southern people spent 10-13 days in our forest. Certainly, it was difficult. It is necessary to make sure that children, women, pregnant women, and so on do not get sick,” the president added.

“The Europeans insist on it, and Merkel told me: Mr. President, let the International Organization for Migration, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner in. And so on. I said: No problem. But I saw very soon that some people had been here before. Why would they come here again? To show off against the background of these refugees,” Aleksandr Lukashenko believes.

The president emphasized that if representatives of international organizations want to come only to win some points on the refugee topic, they should not be allowed to enter. “If you have arrived, then help the refugees. If you cannot arrange a humanitarian corridor, so tell me why you cannot. You have the experience of helping refugees, so help them. These international organizations also accumulate huge finances. No one is really addressing this problem except for the Belarus Red Cross, our MPs, representatives of our government. They [international officials] come to stroke a baby’s nose. Why are they stroking his/her nose with dirty hands? On camera, of course,” the head of state said with indignation.

And when they [journalists] address questions to these so-called international officials, they cannot answer anything: “We cannot do this and that…” Why have you come then? Therefore, do not overthink it -  if they have arrived, but are of no specific help, tell them goodbye. Let them go to the Poles and deal with these problems from the Polish side. And we can handle these problems on our own,” the Belarusian leader said.

We will try to meet the wishes of these people. Their wishes are a must for us. They have expressed their wish to go back to Iraq, Syria, and we, as you see, have organized a flight. We are preparing another flight at the end of the month if there are enough people ready to go home,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.

The president added that those refugees, who are currently in Belarus and who want to reach the European Union, do not want to return home. The president stressed that Belarus is ready to provide support to them in this matter, including in the issue of legal entry to the EU.

"They want to reach Germany and Poland. We will try to help them in every possible way. Together with them, we will demand that they be allowed to enter Germany. As of now we have learned that they are going there not only in the hopes of a normal life (which is true) but also in order to reunite with their families," Aleksandr Lukashenko noted. “I would like to repeat that we will help everyone who wants to return home. No problem here. We will also support those who want to reach Europe."

During the meeting the president stressed that contact persons from the European Union who were supposed to cooperate with Belarus on the refugee crisis do not get in touch.

“I am waiting for the EU’s decision on 2,000 refugees. We have about 2,000 refugees in this camp. I asked them [the European Union and, in particular, Germany] to take them away. They said that Merkel [Germany’s acting Chancellor Angela Merkel, with whom Aleksandr Lukashenko had two telephone conversations] promised me to consider this problem at the EU level. Yet, it is not even being considered. The same pertains to contact persons (it was also her promise and a decision made by the EU). These contact persons do not even get in touch. Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Makei calls them to invite them to come to grips with this problem. They answer that they are on a business trip, somewhere else and so on,” said the head of state.

“Therefore, we should not wait for anyone. Once they refused, they will not be allowed to come here. There is nothing for them to do here. Because it will end up the same way as with these international visitors. They will come to show off. We will handle these migrants on our own if Germany does not take them. What else is left for us to do? We have no choice. But we must demand that the Germans take them,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that many of these refugees have relatives in Germany. “They have relatives, family members living in Germany. Therefore, they left for Germany with their children, families, but got pesticides pouring in their face, nose, mouth, and so on. Therefore, we will do everything these refugees want. We will not beat, humiliate and bully them,” the president said.

According to him, many are striving to get to Germany to continue their treatment. “Yesterday, WHO specialists were shown some X-rays and were told that some refugees needed to finish their treatment. These specialists responded: Go to Iraq for treatment! But if they could continue their treatment and have a surgery in Iraq, they would not have come to Belarus to get to Germany. Here is their face, here is their responsibility. Therefore, these visitors have nothing to do here. Tell the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that you will not let these visitors come here again in order to show off. However, if they want to help, let them do it,” the head of state said.

“What are you [foreign visitors] telling us about medicines and so on? We have enough medicines. You have billions of dollars. Give money to these migrants so that they can get medical assistance, some subsistence minimum, and so on,” the Belarusian leader added.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that alongside the main refugee camp, one should not forget about the situation on the border as a whole. “These poor fellows keep crossing the border - 200-300-400-600 people along the entire border with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia. They manage to get there. What do they [in the European Union] do? They catch migrants already on the German border or in the middle of Poland, put them in police vans, bring them to the borderline and thrown them out to our part of the border. In other words, they dump them at the border. I have got the recent updates. True, there are much fewer of them by now - about one and a half hundred people along the entire border of the three states,” the head of state noted. 

Moreover, even those who entered Poland and the European Union from countries other than Belarus are also pushed back to the Belarusian border.

“There is one more thing I would like to touch on. This is about Poland in the first place. Their reckless politicians and top-ranking officials have been churning out threats to close the border, to shut down the Kuznica railway border crossing. If they want to close it, let them do it. If they think it is a better solution, let them go ahead. But I suggest they think, first of all, about their communication with Russia, China, and Asia in general. They will have to use the routes via Donbass. The guys there are tough. They will quickly show them their place,” said the head of state.

“I am using Donbass figuratively. No one is waiting for them there. Russia's border with Ukraine is closed,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

In his words, Poland is trying to intimidate by issuing such statements and aggravate the situation. “They have tried to solve their internal and external problems by putting pressure on Belarus and to show who is to blame for Poland's problems,” the head of state said.

According to him, Poland itself has a lot of problems, including issues related to the law on abortions, farmers, and recently, women, mothers have spoken up in defense of refugees stranded at the border.

“They [Polish authorities] talk about our presidential election. Remember how [Polish President Andrzej] Duda won. He won the election by several votes only. It was a total falsification. If not for the United States, there would have been a mayhem there. Everything that happened in Belarus in 2020 would not compare. The United States interfered, ordered to let Duda work until the opposition would take over later. Everything there is controlled from outside,” the Belarusian leader said. “They are criticizing us. What for? They rigged the elections, put Duda in power. He has already gone on a tour around the Baltic countries putting together a coalition from ‘morza do morza" [Polish for ‘from sea to sea’]. ‘Mozra do morza’ will not happen!”

The president stated that Poland simply wants to wheedle billions out of the European Union that halted them because of Poland’s failure to meet the EU standards. "Secondly, they are distracting their people from the domestic problems," he said.

“I say honestly and frankly that I gave an instruction through all channels to prevent them from using Belarus, the topics of the border and migrants in their games,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “Our policy regarding this migrant crisis will remain what it was originally. We don’t transfer anyone across the border intentionally. And we are not going to. People are going there. It has been said a thousand times why. This is why it is necessary to get the message across to the Poles, to every Pole and show to them that we are not barbarians, we don’t want confrontation. We don’t need it. Because we understand that a war is unavoidable if we take things too far. And it will be a catastrophe. We understand it perfectly well. We don’t want any aggravation. But we will protect these poor souls as well as we can.”

“It is what the situation is and Belarus’ position is today,” he stressed.

Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that ordinary people, people in Poland, women and mothers have already started resenting the prohibition of passage to the refugees. “Military and border guard personnel already fail to understand Poland’s leadership. We also hear their talks. They approach us saying: ‘Brothers, let’s live like we used to live’. Well, let’s do it, we don’t mind. In other words, we see that the behavior of the Polish nation is changing. They are people, too. Regardless of how monoethnic they are, but they are people. Ordinary people raise their voices. It disturbs Poland’s leadership. And things will be worse later on. Later on people will understand that Lukashenko is not the reason for this exodus of refugees.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that this is why Poland’s leadership – Poland President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki – need the border situation to get worse. “They exploit it in order to divert attention of the international community and Poles from these [their own domestic and foreign] problems. We will not give them the chance. We will treat these migrants like human beings. It is not such a big problem. They should look at what is going on in the Mediterranean Sea, how many people die there. Thousands of people are getting trafficked [to the European Union] via the Balkans and other countries, across the Mediterranean Sea. They keep silent [about it]. But they [blame] Belarus, it is clear why.”

The president also thanked Vladimir Karanik and Yuri Karayev for working hard to resolve the problems relating to the refugee situation. “I am very glad that you are taking part in it. If you didn’t, it would be very difficult to do it from Minsk,” he said.