Why Belarus Is Simultaneously Ruled By Two Persons

Don’t you have a feeling that there’s not just one Lukashenka ruling the country, but there are two of them at once? And they are completely different.

Personally, I can’t stop thinking about that. And this time, listening to Lukashenka’s latest speeches, you just scratch your head and wonder.

Here he is chiding Russian media for unleashing hybrid wars, talking about the greatness of the Belarusian language and reasoning about morality. And it's all seems to be true, you cannot even argue.

There is only one thing. There’s one Lukashenka speaking, and a different one acting.

A few months have passed between the sounded words about the morality of journalists who should give reliable information, and the story of "militant patriots". And as if there have been no those two dozen people, whom the authorities let to be profaned by the official media. Hysterics, blatant lies and impunity of official propaganda – that is not about the "nice man" on the pulpit.

Or, take Lukashenka's words about the Belarusian language, which, according to Lukashenka, is an undeniable value, but for some reason it is studied less than English at school. This is the other Lukashenka who, for 23 years, has been leading the country to the situation, where only 13% out of 40% of the Belarusian schools have been left. And the first one, "wise and noble", "fights" with this injustice with all his strength.

And we come across these such very different Aliaksandr Lukashenkas almost every day. One of them speculates about the protection of socially unprotected strata and the fight against unemployment, while the other one issues the decree on "parasites". One distributes the apartments to families with many children, and the other supports what was said in the decree, leaving them without state support in residential construction.

Alas, the words of the first one intersect with the deeds of the second one so rarely. Looking today in the eyes of the first Lukashenka, you clearly understand that at any given moment, nothing will prevent that other Lukashenka from inventing for the media "Frau A., B., C. and other letters of the alphabet", imprisoning fighters for independence and singing again to the European envoys the song "About the Gray Goat." Because, no matter how persuasive and just Lukashenka No. 1 is – Lukashenka No. 2 will pursue the agenda.

Veranika Bialova, Salidarnasts