First person master class

Thanks to the incendiary example of Aleksandr Lukashenko, chopping firewood has become incredibly popular, and now a spontaneous flash mob has launched the sports championship. Participants came from different regions of Belarus. While the participants were warming up, the President appeared on the competition ground. 

Addressing all those present at the sports festival, the Belarusian leader said, “Any state is strong with its traditions… Times are tough. We need to help our people outside our country. People there can’t even buy firewood, and we have fun here, jokingly chopping this firewood. God forbid they don’t get lost. We can organise and bring this firewood to the border. Let Lithuanians, Latvians and Poles, Ukrainians know that we are peaceful people, we do not want any war.”
Before the championship the President demonstrated how to chop wood correctly. Dmitry Baskov and Sergei Teterin assisted him in his master class. Aleksandr Lukashenko showed how to chop a large log using an axe and a sledgehammer and then demonstrated his axe skills on a smaller log. 
“You need to find a crack and the point you would like to hit. And do it along the crack toward the centre. It is better to chop so that the chump does not fall from the log,” the Head of State instructed.
Individual competitions included chopping firewood among men and women, cutting logs, relay race (saw, chop, light a fire). Aleksandr Lukashenko not only watched the actions of the participants, but also gave practical advice, and personally helped the girls. A journalist of the Belarus Segodnya Publishing House Anastasia Tselyuk, whom the Head of State helped to cope with a difficult log, also became a trainee of the President. During a conversation with media leaders and journalists, the President was asked the question: how did it happen that the rich EU today found itself in such a hopeless crisis? According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the leaders in the EU are completely dependent on the United States. Moreover, they lack the will to resist this pressure. There is also economic dependence related to the supply of goods to the premium American market, business interests, the Head of State noted,  “Germany, the whole of Europe have no leaders today. They can’t put out the fire in their own house. Europeans don’t want this war. They understand that today it is Ukraine, attempts to destabilise Belarus, tomorrow it will be the whole of Europe that will be blazing.”




However, the elites of a number of countries in this situation do not seek to stop the conflict, but, on the contrary, escalate, trying to further unleash a war in order to maintain their own power, Aleksandr Lukashenko added. Had the European Union agreed on a partnership with Russia, it would have been a great power, the president is convinced. According to the President, the Europeans should ‘think for themselves and decide how to live further’. 
The next firewood chopping championship will be held in a year — those who wish to participate have time to sharpen their skills and abilities.

Based on materials of sb.by and belta.by
Photos by Aleksandr Kushner, BELTA