English

Lukashenka plays up his fight against corruption

Alyaksandr Lukashenka on Friday played up his work to fight corruption and reiterated that his family could not be suspected of any murky dealings.

"If you have announced that you will be cracking down on corruption, you should fight it and remain completely clean yourself," he said. "This is some kind of self-sacrifice: you cannot be rich, you cannot earn money, your children cannot work with private companies where they could earn money honestly."

Mr. Lukashenka said that he had banned his sons from engaging in business activity as long as he was president. "I am human, I understand that if tomorrow I am kicked out for some devaluation and other, I will have no place to live. But then I would have to give up this part of my work [against corruption]. I will never do that," he said.

The Belarusian leader revealed that he wanted to go down in history as an honest politician rather than use his powers to amass wealth.

The level of corruption in the Belarusian government is fairly low despite the fact that government officials' wages are modest compared with those in Russia and Ukraine, he said.

Mr. Lukashenka said that the West was mired in "legalized" corruption. "All of this is transparent, legal there. What is viewed as bribes in our country is legalized there. We may have the same here once, but I am against that," he noted. //BelaPAN