Elvira Mirsalimova, a pro-Russian activist and resident of Vitsebsk, has expressed her readiness to seek the presidency of Belarus in 2020, politring reports.
“A decision on the subject will be made at the congress of the Republican Party of Labour and Justice. All the official statements will be made after the congress’ carrying a resolution,” Mirsalimova, a well-known promoter of the idea of the further integration of Belarus and Russia, said.
In case of being elected President, the woman promises to settle economic and social issues in the country, as well as the housing problem.
“It is also necessary to stop the rampant nationalism and romanisation, language strife and de-Russification, to take strict control of the activities of the NGOs financed from the West,” she added.
Elvira Mirsalimova has repeatedly said that Belarusians are actually Russians. Moreover, she called Josef Stalin a ‘prominent political leader’ and came up with the initiative to put a monument to him in Belarus. According to Mirsalimova, Stalin is a ‘lot more monumental figure’ than the whole of the Polish-Lithuanian nobles whom we are now forced to take as Belarusian activists’.
In 2019, Mirsalimova ran for a seat in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament, but she got only 15 votes at the ballot station she was standing for. During the pickets in Vitsebsk, woman and her associates were showing Belarusian and Russian flags.
