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President Muses on the Year in Belarus
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko expects 2008 to be a year of challenge for Belarus. But he promises to get to work right after the holidays. “The year that is beginning will not be simple. It will be complex. That is not because oil and gas prices will rise, not because we will not have enough of anything, it is the way the world is developing,” he explained during the Christmas service at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.
Lukashenko emphasized that the country must make a breakthrough in economic development this year. “Life demands it,” he said, and the country is facing difficult but necessary tasks this year. “It would be simpler if there was no pressure from competitors,” he observed.
The Belarusian president also expressed the opinion that the opposition of other countries to the emergence of the new state that Belarus will become is predictable. That opposition is the source of the pressure Belarus is experiencing. “The powerful in this world do not like it when smaller states begin to make themselves heard… We have to look on that calmly and continue with our business,” Lukashenko said. He said that he has begun to react to it less himself.
www.kommersant.com
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