The Belarusian people are prudent enough to make the right choice. You have been moving in the right direction all these years. Yes, there have been difficulties, problems. Crises affected your hard-working country, too, but you have gone through them with fewer losses

Personally, I am against deeper integration with Russia because Belarus is a sovereign nation. We want to be independent. We want to find friends and not enemies among other countries.

Today he (Lukashenka) won by the hands of "gorillas" in black masks. Already it is clear that there will be no Parliament in Belarus, no democratic election. The remains of a free press will disappear. A presidential Junta will govern the country... Well, we can congratulate Belarusians on the previous elections. Worse cannot be done. For ourselves, for society and for future generations.

I know that Belarusians woke up. Belarusians—we will never return to the state of slaves, as we had been living for 27 years. I don’t hope—I’m sure, that Belarus will be a success story. We will win [against] autocracy. We will bring our country to democratic changes. I take this belief from the Belarusian people, from those who are behind the bars. I take this belief from democratic countries that are standing with Belarusians at this difficult moment. Together, with the free world, we will be able to bring our country, our wonderful Belarus to these changes as well.

I’m here on this place by fate. I’m here only because I believed Belarusians that they want changes, and people believed in me. Now, and I’m doing what I can. You know, I can’t call myself the leader of the revolution because it’s everybody who is doing something is already a leader, because it’s impossible, you know, to organize everybody. People are self-organized. You’re right, I’m not going to participate in new elections. It’s not my aim. And I talked about this to Belarusians in the presidential campaign. My mandate is only to be with Belarusians till we bring our country to new elections.

We will need a President who is experienced in economics, in politics, in strategy. I am not supposed to say this, but that’s clearly not me. We have people in Belarus, including among the political prisoners, who deserve to be in this position. People will make their choice. And then, even if things don’t go as we want them to, we will all share the responsibility, because this will have been the people’s choice.

Ukraine has managed to preserve their language and culture, and national pride, which made it possible to assemble the force that could stand up to Russia. Belarusians, on the contrary, had been robbed, taking the national history and make sure that by 1917 the country did not exist, and all that it has today — thanks to Russia. People are deprived of their history and national identity, will not go to the square to fight for something that does not feel or understand.

And this brings me to the final area where our nations have to come together -- in our steadfast support for those who reach for their freedom. And, yes, that includes the people of Ukraine. And few understand this better than the Baltic peoples. You know from bitter experience that we can never take our security and liberties for granted. We want Ukrainians to be independent and strong and able to make their own choices free from fear and intimidation, because the more countries are free and strong, and free from intimidation, the more secure our own liberties are.

The peoples of Yugoslavia do not want Fascism. They do not want a totalitarian regime, they do not want to become slaves of the German and Italian financial oligarchy as they never wanted to become reconciled to the semi-colonial dependence imposed on them by the so-called Western democracies after the first imperialist war.

Belarus is a part of Russia.

Russia has made its choice in favor of democracy. Fourteen years ago, independently, without any pressure from outside, it made that decision in the interests of itself and interests of its people — of its citizens. This is our final choice, and we have no way back. There can be no return to what we used to have before. And the guarantee for this is the choice of the Russian people, themselves. No, guarantees from outside cannot be provided. This is impossible. It would be impossible for Russia today. Any kind of turn towards totalitarianism for Russia would be impossible, due to the condition of the Russian society.

The most striking thing of all is the silence of EU institutions regarding the deplorable state of Bulgaria’s rule of law. One could even argue that prominent representatives of the European People’s Party (EPP), which has endorsed Borissov’s GERB, are complicit with the regime.

"«Нельзя так со своим народом»Главная соперница Лукашенко — о том, почему у белорусов кончилось терпение и нужна ли им Россия" (30 July 2020)

I call on the USA to be with us. It’s very important when a regime is destroying everything in Belarus, destroying mass media, destroying all the organizations, it’s extremely important to support all those people.