Alexander Lukashenko - Controversial Statements

Controversial Statements

Lukashenko has been noted for making controversial statements. He has been accused of making a remark in 1995 which praised Adolf Hitler: "The history of Germany is a copy of the history of Belarus. Germany was raised from ruins thanks to firm authority and not everything connected with that well-known figure Hitler was bad. German order evolved over the centuries and attained its peak under Hitler." However, this allegation was originally made by the Russian television channel NTV, on the basis of an interview which Lukashenko gave to the German newspaper Handelsblatt, in which Hitler was not even mentioned. The original interviewer, Dr. Markus Zeiner, said "a tape of the interview had been quoted out of context and with the sequence of comments altered by the Russian media."

In October 2007 Lukashenko was accused of making blatant anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments. Addressing the "miserable state of the city of Babruysk" on a live broadcast on state radio he stated: "This is a Jewish city, and the Jews are not concerned for the place they live in. They have turned Babruysk into a pigsty. Look at Israel—I was there and saw it myself ... I call on Jews who have money to come back to Babruysk." Members of the United States House of Representatives sent a letter to the Belarusian ambassador to the United States, Mikhail Khvostov, addressing Lukashenko's comments with a strong request to retract them. The comments also caused a reaction from Israel. Consequently, Pavel Yakubovich, editor of Belarus Today, was sent to Israel, and in a meeting with the Israel Foreign Ministry said that Lukashenko’s comments were "a mistake that was said jokingly, and does not represent his positions regarding the Jewish people" and that he was "anything but anti-Semitic," and "insulted by the mere accusation." Belarus Ambassador to Israel, Igor Leshchenya, stated that the president had a "kind attitude toward the Jewish people." Sergei Rychenko, the press secretary at the Belarus Embassy in Tel Aviv, said parts of Lukashenko's comments were mistranslated. In fact, two Belarus newspapers—Nasha Niva (Our Wheatfield) and Narodnaia Volia (People's Will)—were shut down in 2006, after ignoring several warnings, for publishing allegedly anti-Semitic and racist articles.

On 4 March 2012, Lukashenko provoked diplomatic rebuke from Germany and much controversy when he insulted the openly gay German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, by claiming that it was "better to be a dictator than gay" two days after European Union leaders (including Westerwelle) at a summit in Brussels on 3 March had called for new measures to pressure Lukashenko over alleged human rights abuses in Belarus. In the meeting, Westerwelle had referred to Lukashenko as "Europe's last dictator".