Translation: ‘Who gave you the right to do this? Where, in what law does it say that you have the right to penalise people?’ Aleksandr Lukashenko repeated this question.

At a government meeting called to discuss the pandemic situation and measures taken to counter the spread of coronavirus infection, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko expressed his position on the anarchic actions of state bodies and clearly outlined his position on this matter. The head of state stressed that he had assembled a meeting to discuss exactly the issues of treating people, and not to announce measures to fight against COVID-19.

At the beginning of the meeting, Alexander Lukashenko addressed a question to Health Minister Dmitry Pinevich: ‘As I understand it, Dmitry Leonidovich, are all those assembled here today perfectly healthy?’

Having agreed that all present were perfectly healthy, the head of state asked the following question: ‘You quarantined people before meeting with the President? Did you do PCR tests?’

This time the Minister of Health replied that there had not been any tests on the people before their being quarantined and corralled.

‘How is this, you came to the head of state, to this assembly with the President and you did not check the health of your political colleagues here?  What kind of double standard is this? Is this the attitude you are constantly trying to convince me of?

‘Answer me. The head of state asked you a reasonable question. It was not for nothing that I asked you this question, Dmitry Leonidovich.

‘In fact, you did the right thing in not testing those assembled here. Because lockdown and quarantine are not accepted in our country. People around the world come to see me, the President of Belarus without quarantine, I am not saying not checked.’

President Alexander Lukashenko continued: ‘I specifically asked a question to ask the following question: if you open the door to the President and come to me freely, then why are you mocking people if you freely go to the President?’

The Head of State stressed that not a single person for the entire period of the pandemic who met him was asked whether they were vaccinated or not, or whether they had a PCR test:

The President remarked: ‘Mrs. Kochanova (speaker of the Belarus Council) was always indignant: How is it, they are coming to the President! She is responsible for Minsk city and the Palace of Independence is in Minsk and she was always indignant. Well, she gets indignant, and yet she herself comes to me without being tested. Such hypocrisy.’

‘Why are we restraining people then? Why did you raise a hullabaloo all over the country? Why the police were mobilised to check the mask regime. You interfere everywhere, even without sparing the degradation of women,’ Aleksander Lukashenko noted.

In this regard, the head of state turned to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: ‘I warned you. Do you have anything to do? Why are you breaking the law? We do not have such a law.’ ‘Why are you playing along (with this pandemic nonsense)?’

‘So, treat people properly like human beings, which they are. Starting from this zone and ending everywhere on the streets, ‘Dmitry Leonidovich, you and your cohorts raised a storm all over the country. I think the governors heard us. What do you do ~ without my authority? You apply force, you place the state’s knee on the chest and you force people to vaccinate. I asked you not to allow this!’ added the Belarusian leader.

‘What are we hiding from the people? We do not know everything about this disease. And each person should dispose of his fate as he sees fit. But we’ll talk about it now,’ the President said. ‘You see, they started to penalise people. Who gave you the right to do this? Where, in what law does it say that you have the right to fine people?’ Aleksander Lukashenko repeated this question.

The president told the gathered ministers that rather than being guided by commonsense they had allowed the internet to persuade them. ‘Haven’t you got brains of your own, that you have become broadcasters of the postings of social media clones?’ If you have a brain why don’t you use it instead of attaching them to others?’

At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that law enforcement agencies are not doing enough in other issues that directly lie in their sphere of responsibility. ‘In the Gomel region, ask Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Subbotin and the Minister, cows are illegally slaughtered and sold to Russia at night for two weeks! Where were your officers then? Kneeling on people’s chests? Confining the people?’

The President returned to the topic of COVID-19 and the issue of various kinds of restrictions in this regard. ‘We behave ugly, and we force people to be our perception of perfect. This will not work. Go back to what we did in the first wave,’ the head of state demanded.

‘What kind of draconian methods have you introduced during this time. And what has become better? No, Dmitry Leonidovich, we need to treat people, we will not go anywhere,’ the Belarusian leader emphasised.

Alexander Lukashenko explained that he personally is not against people wearing masks and getting vaccinated, but first of all, attention should be paid to treatment issues.

He is sure that if we work effectively in this direction, then literally within a month we will be able to minimise the problem. ‘But we will not treat people, we will not engage in covid and antiquated politics, because if we do, we will bring the people to riots. It will be like in Europe, is that what you want?’ he warned.

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