I reported many elections.
I saw the Prime Ministers and presidents rolled up at the polling stations, dropped the ballots, and then accept several questions from journalists.
But I have never seen anything like the stage at the 478 election station in Minsk.
The longtime leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, who was called “The Last Dictator in Europe” arrived to throw his newsletter. Then, while the Belarusians were still voting, candidate Lukashenko gave four and a half hours a public television press conference.
It was an opportunity to hold it in a conflicting vote, which was criticized as “fake”.
“What kind of unhappy question did you prepare for me?” he asked. “As you always do.”
“Good morning,” I replied.
“Good morning, Steve.”
“How can you call it a democratic election when your main competitors are in jail or in exile?” I asked.
“Some are in prison and some are in exile. But you are here!” – Lukashenka said.
“Everyone has the right to choose. It is democracy. Some chose a prison, others chose exile. We never made anyone leave the country.”
In reality, the strict repression of the authorities after the 2020 presidential election led to the fact that they had left in the prison of Alexander Lukashenko either imprisoned or driven into political expulsion. Personal choice did not enter it.
“You have recently said,” We don’t have to close people’s mouth “(silent people),” I reminded.
“But your opponents did not just do not contain in the newsletter. Some are in prison. Currently, more than 1,200 political prisoners are in Belarus. Isn’t the time to open prison cells and release them? Such people as Maria Karasikova, Sergei Tikhonovsky. “
“You continue to Mary about me. My God,” Lukashenka sighed.
“Okay, I will answer your question … Prison are people who have opened their mouth too wide and who broke the law. Did you not have prisons in Britain and America?”
“In any country, if you break the law, you have to tolerate the consequences,” he continued. “The law is strict, but it is a law. I didn’t come up with it. You need to obey it.”
“You need to obey the law,” I intervened. “But these people are in prison for criticism.”
“The ignorance of the law does not release you to him.”
