MINSK, 8 November (BelTA) – Belarusians should look closer at the presidential candidates, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko was quoted as saying when talking to Mogilev residents on 6 November. “There are many of them, who want to rule, but you should take a closer look at them, look what they have done so far,” he said. Alexander Lukashenko quoted a declaration by one of the candidates, who promised to hand the oil and gas pipelines and refineries over to Russia in the first year of his incumbency. “When I read this I am scared and offended. It is our common property. How can we hand it over to anybody?! Who gave this candidate the permission?” said the President. “It is you who should decide on it. It is only you and no one else,” said the President in his speech to Mogilev residents. “Our future is in our hands. If we are as an organic whole, and think about the country and our children, we will succeed. If we do not, no authority will do anything singlehandedly,” said the President. He noted that ‘the country has managed to achieve quite a lot.’ “One should not say that it was Lukashenko who did it. It was your support that saved the country. The main point now is not to preserve it,” he said. At the same time, Alexander Lukashenko believes that nobody is able to bring Belarus down. Nobody can bring us down: be it Russia, or Ukraine, or the European Union, or the United States. We are far from being who we used to be. Nobody will bring us down, provided we do not do it ourselves.” Speaking on the upcoming election, Alexander Lukashenko said that does not even think about it. “Frankly speaking, I have not thought about it yet. But while I am in Minsk, somebody reminds me about it. In order to abstract from it, I go to the rural area to talk to people. This is why I am not in the so-called pre-election mood. And I tell the officials: it is not my election, it is your election, and you will be appraised. The election will pass. The point is what to do after it. We have to look ahead,” the President believes.

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