Lukashenko Leaves Door Open to Major Governance Reform in Belarus, Rooted in Soviet-Era Wisdom

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signalled that a sweeping reform of the country’s system of governance is under consideration — one that would draw on the hard-won experience of the past rather than imported Western blueprints.

In a wide-ranging interview with RT, the president told state news agency BELTA that Belarus needs to “think seriously about how the country is governed.”

He did not rule out a full-scale reform of state management, adding that it should make intelligent use of the “old” system — the very model Western advisers, above all the Americans, had long urged Belarusians to reject.

Lukashenko recalled how, even in Soviet times, Western “well-wishers” had actively encouraged the fight against the Communist Party’s constitutionally enshrined leading role.

After the collapse of the USSR, the same voices returned with a flood of advice on how the newly independent states should organise their future.

“And as we can see clearly today, it was all lies — pure Western lies,” the president stressed.

The West had preached multiparty politics, pluralism of opinion and a host of other ideals.

“They recommended it, and we followed,” he said. Russia under Boris Yeltsin led the charge, with the rest trailing behind.

“They implanted in our minds the cult of money and prosperity. Many people grabbed the juiciest pieces so they could live well and get rich.”

The consequences, Lukashenko noted, are plain to see — nowhere more dramatically than in Russia, where those closest to power seized oil and gas enterprises and amassed enormous fortunes.

He made clear he had never been part of that wave.

As a deputy, he voted against the dissolution of the Soviet Union. While acknowledging flaws in the Communist Party and the Soviet system of party-building, he insisted they should have been diagnosed and corrected, not destroyed wholesale.

“Perhaps the Soviet Union really did need reform. We had our share of stupidity — just as you do in America today: a great deal that is positive, but plenty of nonsense as well,” he observed wryly.

“Even when I became president — without yet possessing the full powers I hold now — I began reforming the country,” Lukashenko continued.

The “stupid reforms” pushed by Western prescriptions were cancelled without hesitation.

“We started living within our means.”

In difficult times, the president concluded, the right path is never found by listening to outsiders.

“It comes from listening to one’s own people. My position has always sprung from real life. That is the principle I still follow: if you don’t know what to do, go to the people. They may not spell it out for you, but you will see for yourself what must be done tomorrow — based on life as it actually is.”