Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Lukashenka Regime Says Belarusian Language ‘Guarantor’ of Security of State


Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 13 – In another indication that the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka is working to defend itself against the possible absorption of Belarus by Vladimir Putin, Lukashenka’s pocket Council on National Security has declared that the Belarusian language is “a guarantor of the humanitarian security of the state.”

            A copy of its resolution on this point was leaked to a telegram channel (t.me/pacaby/715) and has been confirmed by sources as genuine although problems with page numeration and typos suggest that this is a draft and that the final version, likely to be published next week, may be different at least in words if not in direction (news.tut.by/economics/629573.html).

                Given that the Belarusian language is one of the key signifiers of the Belarusian nation and that promotion of Belarusian by Minsk recently, after many years in which the Lukashenka regime allowed Russian to gain ground, has been attacked by Moscow as an unfriendly act, this decision makes clear that Minsk is now doing what it can to oppose Moscow. 

            The Belarusian Security Council document specifies that “the broadening of the social functions and communication possibilities of he Belarusian language, its full and all-sided development together with other elements of national culture are a guarantor of the humanitarian security of the state.”

            It also calls for “the further and thoroughgoing realization of the state’s historical policy in order to strengthen in Belarus and beyond the borders of the country the Belarusian national conception of the historical past of the country and the Belarusian model of development.”  That too will do nothing to make Moscow happy.

            And finally, the document stresses that in order to ensure the stability of Belarusian society, it is necessary to block “destructive information influence” so as to ensure “the traditional fundamental values of the people which are one of the basic elements of ‘securing its and one of the conditions of the development of the state.”

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