On December 9, at the ceremony of awarding the prize “For Spiritual Revival,” Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that now is “a very difficult period of our state’s existence,” and commented on the negotiations with Russia on the oil issue.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka began his address to those present at the ceremony with the comments on the sovereignty of Belarus.
“You may have noticed that in my speeches (and even very official ones, in New Year’s greetings) I often talk about sovereignty and independence. Believe me, it is from the bottom of my heart. There is no lie here, there is no act of mine to please somebody. I am really committed to this idea,” BelTA quoted him as saying.
It is noteworthy that the head of state began his speech in Belarusian, while continuing the thought in Russian.
“We are not just walking on thin ice or a blade. We’re walking and staggering left and right. God forbid we make an inaccurate, wrong step, and we will lose everything. We have to stop wandering through peaceful, calm, clean streets. It is necessary to stop all talk about sovereignty and independence, about someone wanting to betray and to give up Belarus. Someone may want to do it… But not the first president who built this country,” said Lukashenka.
At the end of 2019, Lukashenka and Putin did not agree on oil prices for Belarus. Today, the head of Belarus said that an alternative to Russian oil had been found.
“Why haven’t we agreed on oil with the Russian president so far? Because Russia wants us to buy oil from it at prices above world ones. This is unheard of! That’s why I rejected such oil and stated directly: if there are no supplies at world prices from Russia, we will find this oil elsewhere. Which is what we are doing. And we’ve found it,” BelTA quoted Lukashenka.
The ceremony of awarding the prize “For Spiritual Revival” was held in the Palace of the Republic. In 2019, five prizes were awarded. They were awarded to labor collectives and representatives of religious associations for active work in the humanitarian field.
