Belarus Segodnya Editor-in-Chief: Lukashenko's interview with American blogger is breath of fresh air for Western audience

The recent interview of Belarus’ President Aleksandr Lukashenko to the American blogger and entrepreneur, Mario Nawfal, has become a breath of fresh air for the Western audience – as noted by Dmitry Zhuk, the Deputy Chairman of the Standing Commission on International Affairs and National Security of the Council of the Republic, Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Belarus Segodnya Publishing House, in his talk with the Belarus 1 TV channel

Photo: video screenshot

As Mr. Zhuk noted, any major media event has two components: technological and conceptual. “Aleksandr Lukashenko's interview with the American blogger is unique for our Belarusian history: for the first time, an interview was given not to a national media corporation, but to a global platform – which, naturally, attracts not only Americans. Almost every country has an audience for this platform, and this is a very important technological moment. Of course, those who had organised and prepared the interview performed perfectly. Why did Aleksandr Grigorievich [Lukashenko] become interesting for this platform? His position is not a secret for politicians and journalists,” he noted, adding that the Head of State has been voicing his position for many years, including in interviews with Western media.

“The question is whether they convey this point of view to their audiences or not. Most often, they do not, or use just cut extracts. His position is consistent with the idea of establishing peace on our planet and building a security system. Therefore, his interview is very interesting for the Western audience. It is a breath of fresh air. They did not know about that, they have not heard of it. So far, we are observing the initial effect," he added.

Mr. Zhuk also drew attention to the fact that all major traditional Western media and others quoted Aleksandr Lukashenko and conveyed his point of view to their audiences, “Moreover, they had no chance to distort his statements, because the original source was available to everyone. Keeping their face, they could not alter the meaning, add some kind of comment that would change the view of what the President was saying. Actually, the issues that the Head of State is talking about are understandable to anyone on our planet: we all want to live in peace.”