The country and the people

"Our historic choice is an independent, strong and prosperous Belarus."

"People should not walk to the government but the government should run to the people. It is how the social role of the society changes: people stop being supplicants and become our partners."

"The Belarusian state was created by the people and for the people and it remains this way."

"The bureaucratic apparatus is not ‘demigods’ in our country. This is something we can be proud of. In layperson terms, at the helm of the country are not oligarchs or hereditary rulers, but ordinary people who have worked their way up from the ground level."

"I want to tell Belarusians: our happiness is in our country - we need to preserve our land. It is of high importance to take care of Belarus. We all understand when we lose something in our home. Belarus is a big home of ours. Remember: if we do not have our big home, we will not have our small one, either."

"We must understand that today, when we are facing an unprecedented pressure of sanctions, provocations, information manipulations, the country needs your understanding, trust, support and level-headedness more than ever. The formula is known. I would like to repeat it for the umpteenth time: everyone should do their own thing."

"The people of Belarus have made their choice, a choice in favor of evolutionary transformations of the political system, democratically, in accordance with Belarusian laws. The people have shown wisdom and national maturity."

"It was a very powerful special operation in the field of healthcare [amid the coronavirus pandemic]. We have handled it with dignity. I swear to you. You see, now everyone is embracing our COVID-19 response strategy."

"Belarusian people coped with challenges, became stronger and wiser. We have what to fight for, and we have what to lose."

"The time has shown that our young sovereign state can find efficient responses to any challenges, if necessary. The country's productive efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic is a testimony to that. We have been doing and are doing our best to protect the health and lives of our people."

"We experienced first-hand how destructive information, economic and political pressure from the West influenced the worldview of our people and pushed some of them to actually betray their own people. It is always necessary to produce such a response that will be remembered by the enemy for many years. And only nationwide defense is capable of such a response. In other words, we all need to rise up if we want to defend our land."

"Belarus is a strong and independent country of special, proud people with a heightened sense of justice."

"I want Belarus to be a calm country. We will buy all the other things. We don't need much. We will find money to buy things. We will make everything primarily thanks to our brains, our own hands just the way we are doing it now. Personal ambition is the key. We will not choke personal initiatives of the people."

"Each Belarusian is responsible for the future of the country. The main thing is that everyone has an equal starting point to be a success and make Belarus a better place. This is the essence of justice, and the demand for justice is growing in the world. This is the essence of our model of a welfare state, which has proven its viability despite global sanctions and political pressure."

"It is only us who truly care about Belarus' interests. Only such a strong state as ours is capable of protecting and ensuring our interests. I have said ‘a strong state', because we have always been a monolith, this is our strength."

"A strong authority is more than one person. It is a nation, which is ready to unite when the state is threatened. We’ve survived (for now) because we were united in our desire to preserve peace and historical truth, our way of life and mentality."

"The Belarusian nation exhausted its tolerance for revolutions and destruction last century."

"Good-heartedness, compassion, justice are part of the genetic code of the Belarusians if you want. It is what our soul is all about. Our belief and our tradition. This is why our economy will be geared towards one goal – to take good care of the people."

"We have the main thing that we should preserve and pass on to our descendants - it is our beloved homeland, our Belarus. We do not need another land. We will create our well-being ourselves, by our labor and on our land."

"Belarus should be a country of great opportunities! Belarus should be a country where one wants to live."

"Ideology is an immune system that protects society from internal and external threats. Ideology does not serve the president but the Belarusian people. At the heart of our state ideology is the principle of social justice and consolidation of the entire nation in order to achieve the noble goal of building a strong and prosperous Belarus."

"The Belarusian people are the greatest value for me and also for Europe. We will always pursue the interests of this people."

"The concept “Belarusian people” is centered around the great spiritual brotherhood of all, for whom our generous, beautiful and kind land has become a home."

"We have been under the scrutiny of the international community. We were watched, evaluated, and occasionally labeled and put through economic and political sanctions. But through the thorns of sanctions, the tests of global crises, we reached our goals. In the center of Europe we created our own country - peaceful, stable and very beautiful. Belarus, a country for people!"

"Belarus is a unique country in its own way. It brings together eastern and western branches of Christianity (Orthodoxy and Catholicism). It is home to Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Poles, Tatars ... We are unique as for many years we have lived peacefully and amicably, helping each other, preserving our languages and culture, and at the same time feeling part of one whole, the name of which is the people of Belarus."

"Belarus is a peasant country. Our roots, both spiritual and material, are in the village. Historically, even before the 1950s, at a time of our parents, the vast majority of Belarusians lived in the countryside. The well-balanced perception of the world,  confidence of Belarusians in themselves and their future stem from the inseparable connection with their native land. The village is not just a piece of land. It's a whole civilization. It is ours, Belarusian."

"The Great Patriotic War could have put an end to our history, to the existence of the Belarusian people. But at a time of terrible trials the Belarusians showed incredible perseverance, the national character that always eluded rational understanding of those who came with a sword to our land before. We are strong in difficulties. It is in the time of trials that the spiritual strength of Belarusians manifests most vividly - a fusion of courage, valor, justice and readiness to give life, but not to kneel, not to submit."

"Recently, we have often been talking here about the need to rediscover Belarus. Not in the sense that we are some kind of a closed territory. No. We are open to the world, almost 70% of what we produce is exported. For these reasons, we cannot be a closed country. What is Belarus for those who have never been here, what kind of associations does it evoke? Draniki, Belovezhskaya Pushcha, good roads, bison, giant dump trucks, multifunctional tractors, high-quality products... But in fact, Belarus is much more interesting and diverse than this."

"Our main value is the people. This is why the state policy encompasses the principle: everything is for the good of people. What is the purpose of building wealth if this does not work for the benefit of people. This is a guide to action for government bodies. Because Belarus is truly a country for people!"

"Belarus is the state for the people. Everything that we have created, are creating and will bring to life serves this purpose only."