Posted: 07.10.2021 11:33:00

Truth versus fakes

What the President of Belarus said in an interview with CNN and why this conversation was a cold shower for the collective West

Aleksandr Lukashenko’s interview with CNN TV Channel was not just sharp. It has clearly highlighted the true face of western journalism, which is as far from freedom of speech as the Earth is from the Moon. Matthew Chance, a Briton who works for American CNN in the Moscow bureau, came to Minsk as an interviewer. He came with a pre-prepared set of ‘hot’ facts and ‘loud’ sensations from the category of unsubstantiated accusations and sometimes outright slander. However, the Belarusian leader patiently, convincingly and reasonably responded to all the reporter’s attacks. He spoke in detail about the migration crisis, naming the reasons and perpetrators of the current situation, spoke about the fugitive ‘would-be revolutionaries’, commented on fabrications around the Ryanair plane landing, once again outlined the position of Belarus on integration with Russia and sovereignty. Here are some quotes from the Head of State.

On unwillingness of Minsk residents to talk to CNN


The guest began the conversation with an offensive start. Matthew complained to the President that he was walking along the streets of Minsk in an effort to communicate with passers-by, and everyone ignored him. Maybe, of course, the Americans themselves, at the sight of the CNN logo, fall to their knees and begin to bow earnestly, but this is not customary in Minsk. Moreover, the attitude to the tendentious channel after its style of coverage of last year’s Belarusian events, let’s say, is not very good. Aleksandr Lukashenko sympathised with the journalist, but remarked, “You said that you are from CNN and the overwhelming majority of people in Minsk did not want to talk to you, right? People in Minsk are very intelligent, wise, talented and educated. They know what CNN stands for. There was a CNN journalist recently at the ‘Big Conversation with the President’ and we showed CNN’s position live. So in Minsk, people know very well that your channel is biased, and they simply didn’t want to talk to you about it, because they knew that you were going to distort anything they said anyway. And the fact that the people of Minsk didn’t want to talk to you — look, that’s your problem.”
Matthew tried to twist the case in his direction... and spoke of the ‘atmosphere of fear’. The President, realising how hard it is for a journalist to promote the agenda he needs, smiled condescendingly, “An atmosphere of fear? Lies! Matthew, you’re lying, excuse me. You were walking through Minsk? Without security, without the security service, no one accompanied you, and I don’t see any fear in your eyes today. So why should our people be afraid?”
“The main thing in the image of our state, our trick, if I may say so, is that our people are not afraid to go out with little kids, including in baby strollers, neither at night, nor in the evening, nor during the day. This is our property. And I am ready to defend this position at any level, with any person. And I do not believe that you — being in Minsk — were afraid of anything. I just don’t believe it. This is a pre-created lie by CNN. Maybe, someone needs this.”

On opposition

At some point, Matthew decided to go through the personalities. How can it be without a woman who, like a monkey, is dragged through various western offices and shown as an overseas curiosity. Like, here’s a real leader ... To which the Head of State just shrugged his shoulders, “The female persona — I’m not going to discuss her. I don’t fight with women. And I don’t want to characterise her in any way.”
Returning to a serious tone, Aleksandr Lukashenko noted, “With regard to leadership in the opposition... God grant that I always have such an opposition as it is now. Opposition leaders are those who live in this country, have a different point of view and, expressing it, fight for the implementation of this alternative point of view. There are no such characters [from among the fugitives] in Belarus. They are out there somewhere, with you. Your money supports them.”

On the true goals of the runaways

Chance tried to warm up the topic. How is it that they are recognised, they are also spoken to and all this sort of things for fall guys. But again he ran into weighty arguments from the President, “If there are revolutionaries and they have got themselves involved in a revolution, moreover, tried to win a blitzkrieg here with foreign money — they need to be prepared for anything. But if you wanted to make money out of this or cause chaos, well that’s a different issue. After all, I swear by my children that Tikhanovskaya was not fleeing anywhere. She asked me to take her to the Lithuanian border, not only her but a few other people too, which is what I did.”
“Let those who have got themselves involved in a revolution go to the end. They know what a revolution is and its consequences. Escaped? So this are crooks who wanted to make money out of it. Which they did. Recent events prove it. So you are either misinformed or you are trying to misinform your viewers and listeners.”

On human rights

Perhaps this is the most beloved mantra of western media. If things don’t go according to plan, start a fuss about human rights. They say, admit they are violated in Belarus. Did Chance and his curators really expect the Belarusian leader to repent for something? Literally from the very first words of the President’s answer, the journalist began to deflate.
“You are trying to accuse me of something but let me give you some facts about human rights. You recently delivered a strike on Afghanistan on suspicion of terrorism, and you hit a family… 12 children died. Did you see those people clinging on to the chassis and dying in Kabul? You spent 20 years killing people there. So please calm down about deaths and dying and so on.”
Matthew Chance was very nervous when the conversation got away from the direction that he needed. The Afghan theme caused him to panic. He began to talk a lot, diverting the conversation aside. The same horror was evident in his behaviour when the President mentioned the murder of an American citizen in Congress. The curators clearly did not give Matthew instructions to touch on these very uncomfortable problems, because IT’S DIFFERENT. And then the main function of the visiting journalist began to emerge. He is not interested in Belarus. And he would like to see in the interlocutor only a tool for confirming the picture of the world that his channel draws. Truth is not needed here in principle.

On charges of ‘revenge’ on the EU for the sanctions

Throughout the interview, Matthew Chance tried in every possible way to show his independence and assertiveness. At some minutes, he frantically gestured, raised his voice, interrupted his counterpart, which went beyond journalistic ethics, requiring a reporter to listen and hear the interlocutor. The TV man was clearly working out the obligatory programme, ‘drawn’ for him by the management. The journalist, now and then burying himself in a piece of paper, continued to pepper the conversation with fake news and speculation. For example, isn’t Lukashenko using migrants as revenge of the EU for sanctions against Belarus? And he again received an exhaustive answer from the President:
“Can you prove that I decided to take revenge on the European Union? Do you think I’m a madman? I have a small Central European country, covering only 210,000 square kilometres. Can I dictate terms to half a billion people with 10 million? I’m not going to take revenge on anyone. We have lived without the European Union and will live for many more years. Besides you, the world is huge. And what we need to sell (the main question is to sell what we produce), Russia alone can take it all. But we also have China with 1.5 billion, our friend, and we’ll sell things there. We will sell to Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India. We have normal relations with them. We can do without you and without America. We will manage in the future as well. Only weak people can take revenge. Forgive me for being immodest, I do not consider myself a weakling.”

Instead of an afterword

“President Lukashenko, thank you very much for the conversation,” thanks Matthew Chance. The Head of State once again clarifies: did he ask everything he wanted? Having received an affirmative answer, he thanked him with a kind smile, “Thank you, you are an interesting conversationalist.”
And then one remark from the First Person. At first, as it may seem, personally to the journalist. But if you think about it — to all of us, people and governments on different continents, “Matthew, I would like you (it is a solid channel, we watch this channel at home, my youngest son speaks English very well, he often translates for me) to be more objective and honest.”

The world is very small. The planet seems to be big, but it is so small. And no matter how different we are, we will live with you on this planet. Therefore, let’s live together.


By Dmitry Kryat, Yevgeny Kononovich, Polina Konoga, Svetlana Isaenok, Yulia Demeshko
Photos by BELTA