Svetlana Alexievich, a Nobel Prize winner and a member of the opposition council that seeks new elections and talks with Alexander Lukashenko about a peaceful end to his 26-year rule, was called in for questioning by Belarusian investigators.

Before being questioned, she told reporters that the council does not seek a coup, but wants to unite society. “I don’t feel guilty, I feel that everything we did was absolutely legal,” she said. The interrogation lasted about 15 minutes, and Aleksievich used the right not to incriminate herself. She remained in witness status.

Lukashenko’s security services have begun to target the opposition council and leaders at state-owned enterprises after more than two weeks of protests. The president has called the so called council unconstitutional and ridiculed protesters as alcoholics, prostitutes and puppets of foreign powers.

“Maybe the world will help us so that Lukashenko will start talking to someone,” Alexievich said to a crowd as she arrived at the Investigative Committee in the capital Minsk on Wednesday. “Lukashenko will only talk to Putin, but he must start speaking with the people. Maybe Putin should be brought in somehow.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the issue a domestic matter and said external meddling is unacceptable. The U.S. has denounced the elections, and European Union foreign ministers may give the go-ahead this week to blacklist 15 to 20 Belarusian officials deemed responsible for repression and election fraud, according to a senior EU official.

Against the background of events in the country, the Belarusian ruble is rapidly depreciating against the dollar and the euro. On Wednesday, the dollar rose in price to 2.6483 Belarusian rubles, the euro - to 3.1286, the Russian ruble, to 3.5062 rubles per 100 Russian rubles. The dollar reached an all-time high, writes Tut.by. The last record was set in March this year.

“Belarus should become a strong concrete bridge between Russia and the West.”

Opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has asked the EU to call for a new vote, while saying the protests are not geopolitical. Undermining ties with Russia is “not in the interest of Belarusian society,” opposition politician Pavel Latushka said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Another opposition leader, Maria Kalesnikava, an ally of Tsikhanouskaya and one of the most visible opposition members in Minsk, has been summoned for questioning Thursday.

“I refused to answer any questions and said all information can be found on the coordination committee’s website,” Alexievich, who won a 2015 Nobel Prize in literature, told Bloomberg after spending less than half an hour with investigators. She said they consider her a witness, and she didn’t sign any non-disclosure agreements.

Two members of the coordination council were sentenced to 10 days in jail on Tuesday, the first arrests of opposition leaders since former banker Viktor Babariko was jailed in June. It marks a shift from the police’s initial, brutal reaction, when at least 5 people died and 7,000 people were detained, some of whom say they were tortured.

Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde that the time has not yet come for negotiations with Russia, but the opposition is open for dialogue with everyone.

Three Belshina employees said they were fired for trying to organize a strike.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs counted 4.8 thousand protesters in the country on Tuesday, 51 people were detained. The portal Tut.by reported this with reference to the ministry. The department estimated the number of those who came to the pro-government rallies much higher - 16.7 thousand people.

The Lithuanian Migration Department reported that 11 Belarusians have already asked for political asylum in the country.

Alexander Grigorievich Lukashenko is the first and only president of the Republic of Belarus, whom the people have trusted for more than two decades. In the world community, the Belarusian leader is called the last dictator of Europe with a hint of his undemocratic rule.

 

He is also well known for the funny, rather sarcastic phrases he says. His phrases are immediately about the dictatorship, the system and the people of the country. Bemorepanda collected the 50 funniest quotes of the Belarusian president.

 

 

1.

It's better to be a dictator than gay.

 

2.

There are dictators a bit worse than me, no? I'm the lesser evil already.

 

3.

If someone is a lesbian, it's man's fault

 

4.

I ask myself what is a dictator? I don't understand. It is some kind of terrible person, a bad person. But I am not frightening. I am not a bad person at all.

 

5.

Belarus is not a superpower, but we pay a lot of attention to sports.

 

6.

Look outside the window. Do you see the fence outside the palace? Do you see any guards? This is a country where everyone is safe.

 

7.

I really like to play football, hockey, but more often I play alone.

 

8.

Belarus stood on the edge of an abyss, and I helped her take a step forward.

 

9.

We solved this problem in a narrow circle of limited people.

 

10.

Milosevic was an outstanding politician who gave his all to serving his fatherland.

 

 

11.

I promise that by the New Year every Belarusian will have normal human eggs on the table.

 

12.

We will widen this bottleneck and increase the birth rate.

 

13.

You will live badly, but not for long!

 

14.

In my view this is not democracy, but a zoo.... It was exactly what we expected, but not on that scale nor in that form. In a word, it was nothing but a zoo, you can't put it better

 

15.

If you don't have money for a restaurant, talk to a girl in your student residence. Buy kefir and a bun.

 

16.

Who drinks - better not vote for me, I will not be friends with such.

 

17.

Whoever drinks will not have normal children. We will fight this evil as the most terrible evil. And it turns out - he got drunk, accidentally gave birth, and you, Lukashenko, grow this child. And there are 35 thousand such children in our country.

 

18.

The Belarusian people took a chance and elected me President. This is extremely rare in history and may not be more.

 

19.

A thug only understands you when you speak his language

 

20.

As a child, I grew up among animals and plants.

 

 

21.

I will not lead my state after the civilized world.

 

22.

I worked in the village and lived with the men.

 

23.

The Internet is such a trash, in which everything is there and even useful.

 

24.

A philosophical thought has fallen upon me, so to speak! I just have to be in the center now!

 

25.

The uniqueness of the situation in Belarus lies in the fact that I owe nothing to anyone.

 

26.

For the sake of maintaining peace in the country, I am ready to sacrifice my own mind!

 

27.

Lukashenka cannot steal. Understand you - there is nowhere to hide.

 

28.

We will provide them with humanitarian aid ... with weapons.

 

29.

I went in - aerobics. They showed me there because I had never seen aerobics. I immediately said: “These beauties would be on skis!"

 

30.

I really love sports - this is my best quality.

 

 

31.

Why should a pensioner travel for free ... everything is nearby, both the pharmacy and the store ... was it in vain that they built?

 

32.

Our family has one, one and a half, two children maximum!

 

33.

You asked for rain - I gave you rain!

 

34.

We do not need such a democracy with hubbub. We need democracy when a person works, receives at least some salary in order to buy bread, milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, sometimes a piece of meat to feed a child, and so on. Well, let's not eat a lot with meat in the summer.

 

35.

Losing a teacher - the end, we will go drunk and bad.

 

36.

For the first time in the last ten years, on the night of 31st to 1st, absolutely all Minsk residents - 2 million people took to the streets. I didn't expect 2 million to be on the streets. I would also come to see this miracle from my forest.

 

37.

What I have not seen there in Europe! Everything is dirty! People rub against each other ...

 

38.

I felt the warheads with my own hands and I know that no one will take them off.

 

39.

I don’t want to talk about any Barroso (President of the European Commission), other goats, bulls and others ... Goats - they are goats ...

 

40.

Humanitarian aid is free, it is for the people, including scientists and officials.

 

41.

There should be at least warm water in the evening so that a young milkmaid can come home after work, to wash with her husband in bed.

 

42.

Well, a dictator, so a dictator. This also has a certain payoff. This is the last! Can you imagine? Last! If you didn’t come here, where would you meet and talk to him in your life.

 

43.

Determine where people should gather for rallies, especially oppositionists and other rabble!

 

44.

I am an ardent opponent of benefits. In all elections I usually say: “Down with benefits!”, And the people happily support me: “Hurray! Down with benefits! "

 

45.

Belarus is like a crystal vessel, a weak crystal vessel, which I have been carrying in my hands for two decades and I'm afraid to drop it.

 

46.

There are figures who go to jail themselves. They say that Lukashenka was imprisoned. I'm not planting anyone! I protect so that I don't go to jail. And he stretches out his hands: cling to his handcuffs.

 

47.

This is very Belarusian: first to do something very carefully, and then to refine it.

 

48.

Respect the Belarusian people, be patient with Lukashenka.

 

49.

I have heard that I am criticized for kissing the Koran. Erdogan was presented with the Koran, he kissed him. They gave me the same one, but what should I have done? Someone already thinks that they baptized me.

 

50.

We support them, we give money so that there is something to drink and eat.