I needed to find something to “explain” the differences between our beloved Russian Ded Moroz and Santa Claus. I found this BelTA Infographic… increased the canvas size slightly, used more appropriate typefaces… and, zounds! You have the present graphic… that fills the bill very nicely, indeed.
BMD
30 December 2011
BelTA
http://news.belta.by/en/news/infographics?i_id=1040
To the Great October holiday!
On 6 November, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that many ideas of the October Revolution undergird the foundation of the policy of the present Belarusian state, emphasising, “We celebrate the holiday of the October Revolution on 7 November. I accept all the ideas that the revolutionaries put forth before the people. They had good ideas back then… land for the peasants, factories for the workers, order and recovery in the country, and so on. There wasn’t a single bad idea. These ideas won the revolution. Our present policy relies on many of these same ideas. When we celebrate the October Revolution, primarily, we attach importance to those ideas”.
Lukashenko spoke about why some post-Soviet countries don’t celebrate this holiday, observing, “They didn’t have guts at the time. They faced a storm of criticism, as some said that the Revolution brought misery and killed people. Yes, people were killed afterwards. However, we’re talking about ideas. These bad effects involving the slaughter of people and deviation from the ideas declared prior to the revolution were wrong. However, they happened afterwards, and we condemn it. Nevertheless, one shouldn’t condemn what happened in 1917, and scrap the good ideas that Lenin and his team went forward with”.
Lukashenko advised a careful attitude to an evaluation of the past, noting, “Never hurry to evaluate what happened. It can be politically biased. Whatever past we may have, it’s ours. We can’t get around it. For us to look at our past properly, it’s necessary to see problems, we can’t hush them up, but we should highlight all the good things that happened, too. It’s all our past. Even today, we understand that we did the right thing by preserving this holiday. For this holiday we put aside the best… gifts for the people”. Speaking about the construction of new Minsk Metro stations, Lukashenko remarked that the construction of every kilometre of new metro lines cost 50 million USD (1.575 billion Roubles. 39 million Euros. 31.25 million UK Pounds), stating, “We didn’t do it for executives or rich people. We did it for the people. Isn’t that an embodiment of the ideas that [the Revolution] declared?”
6 November 2012
Voices from Russia 
President Lukashenko on American Elections… and on Western Double Standards
Tags: 2012 US Presidential election, Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, Belarusian Telegraph Agency, Byelorussia, Central Election Commission, Election, Election Day, Election monitoring, election observers, elections, Lukashenko, Minsk, political commentary, politics, poster, United States, United States presidential election, US elections, USA
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President Lukashenko referred to the USA, which fancies itself as a stronghold of democracy, “So, international observers arrived, and they told them that if they crossed the threshold, they’d arrest them. What if we acted like that? We invite them, and Americans act as observers in Belarus. We don’t arrest them. However, even today, they want to be able to count our votes. It’s a manifestation of double and triple standards. We can’t allow it.
I haven’t noticed any concern here about the American election. I don’t show any concern nor does our government. The Minsk Mayor, the Central Election Commission, the Oblast Governors don’t, and even media reporters don’t. They can hold elections any way they want. The entire world laughs at these elections. Firstly, they’re indirect elections; secondly, a man with fewer votes can become President. What kind of elections are those? Nevertheless, they like it this way, its traditional; the people are silent whilst the leaders are pleased. Well, may God be with you.
Don’t stress yourselves over it. Whatever we do here, if we pursue policies in the interests of our nation in order to preserve our independence and self-determination, in order to decide where we’re going, it won’t be advantageous for them. They’d challenge us, and bomb us, until their people rose to power in our country. We should build our own life, and we should keep at bay those who’d violate that”.
6 November 2012
BelTA
http://news.belta.by/en/news/president?id=698095