“We will not forget our country, we will not forget our Constitution, and we will not forget our God.”
President Donald J. Trump – January 20, 2025
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BELARUS FIRST
There is a good Belarusian proverb (I won’t state the original) that can be roughly translated as: "Half of the work is not shown to the unexpirienced". Those who work understand this. Still, a few words must be said for reasonable people because lies, demagoguery, and disinformation—targeting an emotionally immature society and the irrational consciousness of propaganda consumers—have a fatal effect. There is no point in getting outraged. Those who can understand—must understand.
Neither Belarusians nor, especially, Ukrainians should vilify America and its lawfully elected president, Donald Trump. No one has the right to insult this great democratic country, upon which the fate of the world depends. Everything President Trump does, and will do, is beneficial for Ukraine and may ultimately become its salvation. Nothing happens instantly, but things must follow a sequence. If there is a goal to construct something, it will be achieved—even if, to an untrained eye, it first appears as nothing more than a pile of logs. Belarusians must realize that, in this global division that has begun, we must survive as a nation and, above all, preserve our state—Belarus. This is our primary strategic national interest. Our second national interest is not to be drawn into someone else’s war. And the third is to rid ourselves of the occupationist Lukashist regime and the destructive influence of Russia.
If we act wisely, the only country that can now help Belarusians hold on and even secure a future is America and President Trump. Even Lukashenka has grasped something about Trump’s policies, though the collective Soviet-minded "vatniks" (homo sovieticus) - especially abroad - still do not understand it. These people cling to a foreign democracy and expect handouts from it, all while disrespecting the President of the United States. For now, the advantage in the war is on Russia’s side, and peace negotiations will be difficult. But in the end, negotiations will begin. Everything is unfolding as wise people predicted. And now, even with the presence of a collective "vatnik" mindset in society, which understands nothing, Belarusians must grasp the most important thing:
Do not insult or degrade Belarus.
Do not slander your own country in front of outsiders.
Do not call Lukashenka’s anti-Belarusian, anti-people regime a "Belarusian regime"—it is not Belarusian.
Do not call the Belarusian people "co-aggressors"—they are not co-aggressors.
Do not wish harm upon your occupied country or call for sanctions against its economy, trade, transport, culture, and the lives of its people.
Do not call on foreign countries to bomb Belarusian cities, Mozyr, or the Belarusian people.
Do not be self-destructive savages who know nothing about national interests.
It is in Belarusian (and, by the way, Ukrainian) national interests that, if peace negotiations happen, they should take place in Minsk, in Belarus. It is in our national interests that sanctions against Belaruskali be lifted in exchange for the release of thousands of political prisoners, that the railway to the Belarusian terminal in Klaipeda be unblocked, that compensation be paid for the hostile economic blockade disguised as sanctions, and that American investments flow into Belarus’ profitable and globally significant potash industry under mutually beneficial conditions.
All of this will happen. And it will be good if Belarus is governed not by Moscow’s traitors and lackeys, not by corrupt chatterers and political traders, but by our own intelligent, nationally-minded democratic Belarusians. The future will be—and must be—Belarusian and our own. In these circumstances, there can be no other future.
March 14, 2025
Zianon Pazniak