Nyaklyaeu: There's not a single Russian political rouble in the campaign

Nyaklyaeu started the press-breakfast with an "unexpected" statement.

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “We have invited you in order to inform the "unexpected" news - I, the leader of the campaign "Tell the Truth" Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, have taken the decision to participate in the presidential electoral campaign. I've also taken the decision to win this campaign and become President”.

Having estimated the journalists' reaction, he took a camera in his hands and said that he would check the photos and hire those whose faces showed confidence in his victory, to the journalist pool of President Nyaklyaeu. He predicted all the others would work for the opposition leader Aliaksandr Lukashenka after December 19. He also gave some advice for the latter at the same time.

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “If I was in the same situation as Aliaksandr Lukashenka now, I would elegantly lose the elections with a difference of some per cent. Who would I lose to? Some poet! Everyone would understand that I did it on purpose, in order to go into opposition, to see what they could do with this economy, which I messed up, with the messed-up politics. And wait. As reforms will be conducted in disadvantageous conditions, maybe even at the background of life level decrease. And then, at a certain moment, I would get back, riding a white horse, and say: “Look! I'm back!”



According to Nyaklyaeu, he decided to do politics because "it is painful to see what's happening with our language, culture and people". In case he wins he promised to turn Belarus into a Presidential-Parliamentary country, giving an example of the Great Duchy of Lithuania.

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “We had the Great Duchy of Lithuania, so there was some parliamentary experience. And we kept it. If anyone tells me, that's not our history, our experience, I would answer - I was born in the very heart of this history, in the center of this experience, near the remains of Kreva castle, where the Kreva Union had been signed. That was the first Union in Europe - in 1385. We have this experience, we keep it at the level of genes. We can develop it”.



Nyaklyaeu refrained from disclamation of his program, he only said it was socially-oriented. As for the economy, he claimed it needed modernization, with a focus on development of small and medium business. He promised to clarify the messed foreign policy of our country, claiming that, although his attitude to Russia was positive, there was not a single Russian political rouble in his campaign.

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “Today the campaign "Tell the Truth" has not a single Russian rouble, although it is suspected in God knows what. I mean, at least not a single political Russian rouble. I had no meetings whatsoever at the political level, which could make people think about my relations with Kremlin, not to mention direct meetings with Medvedev or Putin, although I am suspected in that”.



All the finance of the campaign, said Nyaklyaeu, came to him from his friends who used to have big business in Belarus but were forced to leave the country. The European Radio for Belarus asked the poet how he was going to pay them back, and he answered they were such good friends they would not demand the money back.

Nyaklyaeu is going to register his nomination group on September 21. According to him, it will include 1-1,5 thousand people. He said he could not promise to collect a million signatures, but 150 thousand - easily. Alongside with that, Nyaklyaeu said he did not quit the attempts to agree with other democratic forces and finally choose a single candidate. He said there was still time to do that. He also promised to cooperate even with those who fail to collect 100 thousand signatures.



As for the "square", it is the variant when the worst comes to the worst.

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “If Lukashenka conducts elections close to democratic standards, if the elections are transparent, if our representatives are in the elections commissions, if there is observation - I will not go to the square. I will know then that the elections have been conducted in the way they told me on December 19. If not - the square appears by itself”.

In the end he complained that it had been a long time since he had spoken on the Belarusian television, that he missed it a lot and hoped for teledebates of candidates, looking forward to duelling with Lukashenka.

Photo: Zmitser Lukashuk