Belaya Rus Elects Education Minsiter Chairman
The Constituent Assembly of the national public association “Belaya Rus” (“White Russia”) was held on Nobemver 17th in the Palace of the Republic in Minsk. The members of the initiative group of this strange organization are rather motley: National Bank head Piotar Prakapovich, Minsk municipal executive committee Mikhail Paulau, sportsmen Ivan Tsikhan, Natallia Tsalinskaya, and Yulia Niestsiarenka, singer Iryna Darafeyeva, and others.
First the Belarusian media treated this association with too much concern. They reported that Lukashenka was to rest upon it in order to govern forever. The organization was said to be an analogue of Putin’s party “Yedinaya Rossia,” and other examples were cited. Radio station “Eho Moskvy” came out with an appropriate reaction to this “event”:
“We’ve received a very funny message today: the movement “Belaya Rus” is organized to support Lukashenka, his pure soul and blessed deeds. We don’t know now who’s imitating and who’s imitated: whether White Russia is imitating Great Russia or vice versa. Soon we’ll come to an end, imitating this way. The things that the associations of support, love, astonishment, delight, adoration, associations of national leaders, associations of nobody-knows-what are doing today are absolutely worthless…”
“Belaya Rus” became even funnier after Education Minister Aliaksandar Radzkou had been appointed as its head. The Minister who expelled students after the events of March 2006, when they had come out to protest against the falsifications of the election. The Minister who is to stay in students’ memory as the one who deprived them of all their benefits and said nothing to protect them. The Minister who witnessed the sentenced of 5.5 years of imprisonment passed to former head of the country’s major university Aliaksandar Kazulin, the Minister who pretended there was nothing wrong with that.
What are the purposes of the new association? Obviously, it’s the support for Aliaksandar Lukashenka. As Radzkou said, “the country has achieved much recently. Political stability features the present day. Economic problems are settled effectively.”
Indeed, “much” has been achieved: Belarus is in a deep crisis, both economic and political. Prices are skyrocketing, the country has taken its firm position among other countries-outcasts, and human rights are violated totally, which induces criticism and sanctions imposed by the civilized world. And judging by the monotonous and plain organization of the meeting, the authorities realize that. That’s the reason for appointing Radzkou as the head of “Belaya Rus” – a more serious politician would never agree to head it.
