Free Elections To End Today's Dictatorship

The political regime in Belarus is to be changed.

Today I remember Chernobyl ... We learned about that terrible tragedy in the laboratory during our student's practical work. The radioactive background increased, and one student got some ridiculous measurement results. The teacher even shamed her. And then she shamed the teacher, proving that her measurements were correct. It turns out that we learned about the release of radioactivity by practical means. But we had no idea that it was a disaster, that it was a nuclear explosion. We thought that it was a serious release of radioactivity. Such, alas, happens with all precautions.

For such cases, certain actions are envisaged and put on the personnel’s notice, they are to be done immediately. It was not done in the case of Chernobyl. Everyone was waiting for party instructions. Gorbachev’s speech in May of that ill-fated 1986 became a complete nonsense. I consider him criminal. He reassured people and did not say a word about what they should do. He acted as a communist, and not as a person.

The Ukrainians, of course, heard that a nuclear power plant is currently under construction in Belarus. I know that this fact alarms the Lithuanians and the Belarusian opposition. And here I would stress two points. First, the today's government is not the culprit of Chernobyl. Insufficient support for the victims is determined not by the wrong actions of the authorities, but by our poverty. The economy is weak, and its improvement depends on the authorities' unwillingness to agree to reasonable reforms, to liberalize economic relations, and therefore to agree to democratization, which is inevitable for this purpose. Fair elections are the end of today's dictatorship. Their absence is all the more disastrous for Chernobyl problems.

The political regime is to be changed, but the opposition does not always correctly distribute the accents, and entices people to protest against the consequences, and not against the reasons. And no matter how much I dislike the current leadership of my country, I must admit, it does something within the framework of those economic opportunities, which it can afford. It’s difficult to blame them for the fact that they agreed on building a nuclear power plant.

As a physicist, I believe that Belarus needs an atomic power station. We produce not so much electricity per capita, but it is well known that people cannot prosper with a small amount of energy. We have less energy, than in other developed civilized countries. And the nuclear power plant allows to solve this issue for Belarus.

But! The power plant that is being built here is really a political project and an attack on Lithuania. If there is a blowout, God forbid, everything will go to Vilnius. No one would do this to neighbors.

Among other things, the reactor, which is put on the Belarusian nuclear power plant, has not been tested. No station in the world has operated with such a reactor. Belarus becomes an experimental zone. And it happens at the borders of Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland.

This reactor is made in Russia. And knowing the quality of Russian goods, from cars to consumer goods, is very dangerous to expect it to be good. Russians’ inaccuracy when performing works, including responsible ones, is the traditional quality. On top of that, the site for construction has been chosen without consideration of the professionals’ opinion.

And, to be completely objective, I want to turn to those who talk about alternative sources of electricity. So far, they are not visible. According to the boldest estimates, the use of thermonuclear reactions for peaceful purposes can only be mastered in 50-70 years. Yes, there are primitive energy sources, renewable ones. For example, growing rapeseed and producing diesel fuel from it. But, so far, it is three to four times more expensive than diesel fuel from oil. And the use of wind and water energy is a weak contribution for the Belarusian conditions. Now it is difficult to make Belarus, and even Ukraine, the counties of wealthy citizens without nuclear power.

Stanislau Shushkevich, gordonua.com