Address to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly

"Every one who calls himself a man should at least learn to hold a weapon to be able to defend everything they care about. I will repeat: they must be able to defend peace in their country."

"The independence of foreign policy is a luxury in today’s world. A luxury that not all nations and states can afford."

"Why is there a mutiny in France and other Western countries? The pension reform is not a problem. And if it is a problem, then people demand social justice."

"The Belarusian nation persevered, preserved its identity in the most troubled moments of history, including polonization in the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Poland in between wars, and during various wars."

"Whatever party or public movement they represent, MPs should first and foremost serve people instead of interests of individual oligarchs and politicians. Even more so foreign ones."

"Frankly speaking, political pluralism is nothing but a tribute to Western fashions. If you remember, pluralism as a political term came into use in the times of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. So what did we do with pluralism? We lost the country."

"In 2020, we, in a manner of speaking, tasted their democracy and human rights. We learned a hard lesson: they will not let us live quietly!"

"The protection of national heritage is a task that the entire cultural sector should be focused on. We have always cherished our culture and folk art. But time poses new challenges. Today it is not enough to cherish and revive. Gradual cultural “import substitution” has become an urgent task for us today. Indeed, it is time to move away from cultural trends and celebrations that are contrary to our Christian traditions and morals. We need to actively promote our traditions, symbols, performers, artists, and so on."

"If we have to, Putin and I will bring strategic nuclear weapons here, too. And those foreign scum, who are now trying to blow us up from the inside and from the outside, have to understand it. We will stop at nothing in defense of our countries, our states, and our peoples."

"Belarus is a peace-loving country. We are not planning to attack anyone. We do not want to be at war with anyone. We do not want it. We still have not buried the last soldier and civilian we lost during the Great Patriotic War. With all our heart we want that war to be the last one in the history of our land. The land soaked in blood and tears. We have had enough pain. Life, however, forces us to keep our powder dry."

"Belarus is Europe. It is its geographical center. Neither Poles, nor Lithuanians, nor Latvians will be able to fence us off with any barbed wire. But we need a new Europe, a truly independent, good neighborly Europe. Economically developed, politically strong, spiritually rich and culturally diverse Europe. And, of course, a Europe interwoven into the Eurasian space in all key dimensions of cooperation."

"The response of our foreign policy to all this chaos is in the robust development of relations with our closest neighbors. The so-called turn to the east in our policy is the reasonable reality imposed by the spirit of the times. After all, the sun sets in the west and rises, as we know it, in the east."

"Europe can survive only if it stands with us, first of all, with Russia. If Europe unites with Russia, it will create such a pole that will have no peers: neither friendly China, nor even the United States. Because resources are here, and the most advanced competencies are there."

"The whole education system should be future oriented, aimed at a new type of workers – smart, flexible, proactive, ready to live and work in the open information society."

"Belarus is always happy to welcome into the fold those who share our spiritual and moral principles, who are concerned about the future as we are, who want to raise their children in the spirit of traditional values... As a rule, they are people of competence, educated, intelligent, and skillful people. They want to develop, learn, create. We should think about creating certain conditions for them, which would encourage such people to move here. Including for those who want to move their business here."

"The Western childfree trend. Any popularization of the ideas of childfree families in our information and cultural space should be suppressed. Any such veiled appeals, as well as all non-traditional trends, is nothing but an attempt to depopulate and weaken the state. No less. Such ideology should be outlawed. The cult of a full-fledged family with two or more children should be the lifestyle of Belarusians. Only in this way can we be sure that the generations that follow us will grow larger and thus hold sovereignty firmly in their hands and will surely live in peace."

"The state should not “buy” children from parents. It can help bring up future citizens, protect them, provide social guarantees and opportunities for development."

"To become stronger, Belarus needs a bigger population. This is a crucial factor of sovereignty. And the state is doing a lot to ensure it."

"We must not allow our compact country to be divided into Minsk and the rest of Belarus! We are a family of seven: six oblasts and the capital. This is our slogan. The benefits that every region has must be the source of development for them."

"First, nobody is allowed to uncontrollably raise prices and take money from people. Second, Belarusians do not have to pay for “empty” dollars like the whole world is doing now."

"Those who want to work and earn money in our country, just work and earn money. I repeat: people who want to work and earn money do it. There is a fine line here."

"The mankind is being gradually led into the so-called new world where there will be billions of redundant people. They will be deprived of rights, hungry, and poor but allegedly free in the most versatile liberalistic manifestations… Countries like Belarus are not simply an irritant. We are a threat to this project. Because we follow our own path."

"We call people the most important value for a reason. Observation of rights of Belarus citizens is an unshakable postulate in our state."

"Import substitution is a matter of national security. It is high time we stopped using someone else’s nuts and bolts and start making truly our own products. Including products of the Union State."

"Now is the time for initiatives and active actions. Only unconventionally thinking executives, enthusiasts can move industries and economy branches forward. We need bold people, who are not afraid of taking responsibility, who are not afraid of going beyond limits of instructions if business needs require it."

"Great financial “experts” predicted the fall of our economy, the fall of the ruble, the poverty of the population. Now when those predictions are far from the truth, it is necessary to explain to citizens of the European Union why Belarus endured when they had to be frugal about heating, hot water, gasoline. Moreover, Belarus even demonstrated growth in a number of areas. Now the West is looking for objective and subjective factors. Keep looking. They will never be able to understand the difference between a “free” liberal society where nobody owes anyone anything and a nation, which understands its responsibility before the state, before its fellow citizens and future generations."

"It is time to move away from cultural trends and celebrations that are contrary to our Christian traditions and morals. We need to actively promote our traditions, symbols, performers, artists, and so on. The demand for domestic products is on the rise."

"It is necessary to develop common approaches to the interpretation of epochal events. Let me be more specific: people need to know who our heroes are, and educate new generations of Belarusians by their examples. Khatyn, Ola, Borki, Brest Fortress and all the places of tragedy and heroism of the Belarusian people, the peoples of the USSR, the nation of winners should become places of pilgrimage and veneration. They should become so for our children in the first place."

"The periods of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were too romanticized in Belarus back in the day. We swallowed this bait very quickly. As if we were all descendants of the Radziwills and the Sapiehas. By the way, major landlords were few and far between on our land. They did exist. Were they patriots of their Fatherland? No, absolutely not. As we remember, they easily changed their religion and language for Polish nobility privileges, titles and positions. Medieval oligarchs made money off the hard work of ordinary people who were really struggling."

"The Belarusian state is also a genuine successor of the historical legacy of the Ancient Rus. It is time to put a stop to all the insinuations about that. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was also Russian. It means it was Eastern Slavonic, which is ours. To those, who are concerned about the topic of the “Russian world” and who tremble at the mention of “Russians”, I will simply say: Russian does not mean only Russia’s, it is ours, too."

"Belarusian statehood originally evolved on the basis of traditions of the rule of the people. Our democratic traditions have millennia-old history. While the West was going through the dark ages as historians describe it, our ancestors, the residents of the Polotsk and Turov principalities were busy building the foundations of legal and political interaction between authorities and the people."

"Belarusians are the people with a rich thousand-year history. Ages of prosperity and slump of many states that used to be in our lands are intertwined in it. The origins of Belarusian statehood are the foundation of our sovereignty. Time itself has forced us to take a tougher state stance on matters concerning the preservation of historical truth. To give a principled and uncompromised evaluation of individual facts."

"If we want Belarus to be sovereign and independent – It reiterate – then we should not have our heads in the clouds, we should not think about extraterrestrial civilizations. Every one of us must do our job."

"We have never impeded and will not impede party system development. It is particularly true for initiatives originating from the people, who sincerely love their country, their home, their family, strive for a peaceful future for their kids. But I repeat there will be no foreign agents funded by foreign countries in our political field. That’s the end of it! And there will be no party of power either. If someone forgot, I will remind you that I went to my first presidential election with the program “Not with the left, not with the right, not with the party, but with my own people!” My stance has not changed."

"I have enough power to protect my country, especially now. I am more interested than you are (pardon my reproach) in keeping it safe, because I have put my whole life into it. Belarus is all I have! We together, as long as we are alive, will not give our achievements away. If we withstand, we will live and so do our children!"

"If there had been no 2020, we would have had to invent it! August 2020 showed who is who. August 2020 showed our miscalculations by focusing our attention on the unacceptability of complacency and carelessness. It was a very important moment in our history. Thank God it happened. Thank God it ended this way."

"I want to ensure security of the Belarusian state and ensure peace for the Belarusian nation! My nation has earned it with its history, with its entire existence! We don’t want to live in slavery anymore and we will not be slaves!"

"We should stop now, before escalation begins. To stop the hostilities. To declare a truce without the right to move, regroup troops of both sides, without the right to move weapons and ammunition, manpower and equipment! For everybody just to freeze!"

"The Russian military-industrial complex - and I know it for sure - is unfolding at full power today. If this military-industrial complex unfolds to its full capacity, it will be hard to talk about peace. If this Russian ‘cart’ rolls by inertia, it will be hard to stop it."

"Misfortune comes to those who let it in. The most illustrative and very dramatic example is very close, near our southern border, where the carnage will not stop until the overseas master gives the go-ahead."

"Never before in the history of our country, especially the history of our independent Belarus, has the issue of sovereignty and independence been so acute. The world spends trillions of U.S. dollars on killing people and ruining nations, rather than on creation. This is the deepest crisis, a crisis that is all-encompassing, multifaceted. In many ways it is man-made – aimed at destroying rivals… The world will be completely different. This is the essence of this historic moment."

"Sovereignty, independence are not given once and for all. We have to constantly demonstrate that we have the will, our values, our traditions and our historical path. The path of peace and creation. There is much work ahead. Goals have been set. Tasks have been set."

"It is high time for us – from Belarus to Russia and China – to write the concept of protecting the rights of ordinary Americans and Europeans; or to give recommendations to the United States and the European Union how to ensure the security and rights of their citizens to maintain laws and order. We could share our experience."

"You saw how instantly the system reacted to the provocation in Machulishchi. So much for the dictatorship. They did so well that even all the foreign intelligence agencies are delighted with it. We got those signals. I want them to hear today: we got these signals of admiration from your special services. But know that we will continue to work like this. Including against you. It was a brilliant operation. It will be in the textbooks."