Former head of Russian Presidential Security Service claims saving Slavyansky Bazar by presenting Lukashenka with a $10,000 accordion
Aleksandr
Korzhakov, former head of Boris Yeltsin's Security Service, told Russia's
Express Gazeta that he had helped to stop the decline of the Slavyansky Bazar
in Vitsyebsk festival by presenting a $10,000 accordion to Belarusian leader
Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
"It was me who
brought composer [Igor] Krutoi into contact with Lukashenka, when the festival
was almost dead. We bought the best accordion in Tula for 10,000 bucks and went to present it
to Batka [as Lukashenka is referred to]. We played, sang songs and persuaded
him to be a patron of the festival."
The Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi
