Quotable notes (03/26/00)

Quotable notes

"The West always assures us that it wants to see a sovereign and independent Belarus. Please, here you have [Lukashenka's] sovereign, independent policy. Why don't you accept it? This is a question that the West has so far not answered."

"Today's demand by the opposition that the authorities should sit at some table, either a round or square one, and negotiate with the opposition is absurd. I have already said that I am not going to create an opposition to myself with my own hands."

- President Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus, in a speech to the Chamber of Representatives on March 14, as reported by Belarusian Television and cited by RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report.

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"Where is the most modern air defense system today - even if it has shortcomings - the best and most widely acclaimed, including the West? In Belarus. Today we monitor the air space from Kyiv to Riga, rendering services to Russia and protecting our and Russian territory. Of course, there are many shortcomings in our army. Yesterday we discussed these problems at a meeting in the presidential residence, but the most modern and mobile army is the Belarusian one. This is the West's view."

"I can quote the man who has nourished neither great hopes nor illusions with regard to Belarus. In general, he hates Belarus - he is Zbigniew Brzezinski. But late last year, while at a seminar in Poland, he stated bluntly that Belarus is a state with no corruption whatsoever."

- Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to Russian journalists, as quoted by Belarusian Television on March 2 (and excerpted in RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report).

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