Victar Tsiareshchanka: I am convinced I am the best-prepared person! (video)

Victar Tsiareshchanka explained why he had supported Lukashenka 16 years ago, promised to decrease the number of policemen by three times and to abolish assignment, and also sang his favourite song, in the new video-project of the European Radio for Belarus “Candidate to Studio!” 

– What is your ideal of a political leader?

–I would say it’s the current German Chancellor, or France’s leader Mr. Sarkozy, and may be even George Bush. He had energy when he just came to power, and he brought changes from the very start. However, it is important that a country takes not only democratic actions, but also non-aggressive ones.

– What is your favourite book?

–This is obviously a book written by Sholohov, about the life of a Cossack, a citizen, a peasant, in a certain historical period.

–Do you mean  “Quiet Flows the Don”?

– Yes, “Quiet Flows the Don”. This book is somehow close to me, I can feel it.

–It would be logical to suppose your favourite song is also some Cossack one, isn’t it?

–That’s from my parents. I remember this folk song:

Someone’s coming down the steep hill

This is probably my love…

 This is the song that women usually sing. However…it touches my heart.

– How many times bigger or smaller should a president’s salary be in comparison with a teacher’s or a doctor’s one?

–5 times bigger at the maximum. For example, if a doctor’s salary is 300 Euros in equivalent, then a President should earn 1 500 Euros at the maximum.

– What is your attitude to sexual minorities?

–This is the right of a citizen. If a citizen turned 18, he has such a right. It’s like membership in a party, or in an association, it’s like will expression. Naturally, if a person does not break any laws.

–How much money does Victar Tsiareshchanka have in his wallet at the moment?

–I am opening it now. I’ve got 170 100 Belarusian roubles, then I have … you can even hear how I pull it out – 20 dollars, and I also have 1420 Russian roubles and 20 Euros in my pockets.

–How do you call you wife at home, in private atmosphere?

–I wouldn’t point out anything special – just normal human relationship. But! Respect to a personality!

–Do you have a family tradition which you keep and get back to it all the time?

–This is to celebrate all the birthdays together. Not only the members’ of our family, but also all my wife’s relatives’ birthdays, and birthdays of my parental line relatives. We also congratulate each other with the New Year, and national holidays, like March 8.

– The holidays marked red in the calendar – which ones would you cross out?

–I would cross out November 7 as October Revolution Day on the spot.

-Which would you add?

–I think I would add some religious holidays, and, definitely, the Day of Republic. If it is July 3rd now, let it be so.

– Can you tell us how much is a bottle of vodka today?

–If we are speaking about Belarusian vodka of medium quality, it costs about 3,5 Euros. Something like that.

–How much should it be?

–I think it should be at least twice more expensive.

– Do you have really close friends, who are they and do they participate in your presidential election campaign?

–If we don’t take into consideration a wife and close relatives, each of us no matter who he is, a Frenchman, a German, a Pole or a Belarusian, has no more than 2-3 close friends. They are members of my nomination group.

– Which polyclinic do you go to when necessary? 

–I feel well. I go to polyclinic No. 4. It is close to my house, in Viasnianka, where I live in Minsk.

–Have you ever taken credit? If so, what for?

–I took a credit last year, in December 2009, for customer needs. I am a bit embarrassed to tell the sum – 3 million Belarusian roubles. This is approximately 1100 dollars. I paid to the end of August and said “My God! Where did it lead me to?” I went to the bank, paid back all the money and said “I will never have any business with Belarusian banks which take 17% plus commission charges!” I mean, that’s absurd, this looks like benevolence.

– Tell us a joke. The one which first came to your head.

–I think this joke is very actual. The collective farm “Way to Communism” conducts another session. The agenda includes the following issue “Dear comrades, we have a lot of manure. Shall we sell it to the neighbouring collective farm “Way to Socialism”, or eat it?” The directive board votes “We’ll eat it themselves, but we’ll give it to no one!” 

– Why have you decided you can be a President?

–It turned out there are a lot of bawlers today, but we are speaking about the state, not about being a leader in a party or a head of a collective farm.  Look, whoever we take as an example, has no experience – not the experience of being in a political party, but the state experience, no or few knowledge – no one has ever been an MP. I am convinced I am the best-prepared person. I am sorry if it sounds like boasting but I had to do that as I knew the candidates would be weak. How can contradict the current President when all of them are just boys with regard to education, level, and voters’ trust? Thus, the current President remains. And I don’t want it to be like that. That is why I am running for President.

– Lukashenka is associated with stability in people’s minds. What can you suggest to people?

–I would like to comment first. Definitely, the President’s ideological service works. We have built communism 5 times, we provided everything to everyone, and even decreased the prices. We’ve seen it for 16 years. What will I do? The first and most important thing: a person should be given an opportunity to take part in manufacturing industry and in services industry, for example, in hairdressing. To be the owner. I think that every person should become a shareholder at the maximum, to his own wish, of course. The whole world lives like that!  

–Answering the first question you said “I don’t want Lukashenka to remain President”. You withdrew your candidature in favour  of Aliaksandr Lukashenka during the first presidential campaign. Did you regret this decision?

–I withdrew my candidature in favour of Aliaksandr Lukashenka on May 13, 1994, having collected 92 thousand signatures and a bit more out of necessary 100 thousand. We remember this period. There were two candidates: Lukashenka and Kebich. Kebich was a PM then, and we saw sharp decrease of the people’s incomes, unemployment growth, and, most importantly, Kebich’s bad behavior. I don’t want to recall it now – I feel embarrassed speaking about it on air. It was difficult for me to understand why this person behaved this way. So I met with Aliaksandr and he answered several questions: “Yes, Victar, I am a market-oriented person! Yes, Victar, I will support this! Yes, Victar! He simply answered positively to my questions and made advantage out of it. So I withdrew my candidature in support of this person. However, I would like to say I don’t regret it. I think that the majority of Belarusians are very grateful to Lukashenka for everything he has done. I am speaking about privatization, about stability. In the end of it all, everything is more or less normal in our country.  Another point is that we do not develop and do not move forward as fast as Poland or the Baltic States do. The point is, Aliaksandr is a persona non grata, there are some physical moments. I believe media, I see what is happening. When I was a Deputy of the Supreme Council of 13th convocation, Viktar Hanchar sat next to me on the left. He was my friend. He is not with us anymore.

I think his time has passed. I think we should thank him, grant him security, make him an honourable president, if you wish, offer him a high-ranked position – if there are any union relations, let him run for the President of the union. However, he has played the role of Belarusian leader. He can’t be the first person of the State any longer, or Belarus will face problems.

–Do you have people in your team who could replace current Ministers, governors?

–There are such people. However, taking into consideration the whole situation, I don’t think any of the current ministers or governors will remain at their positions. Let us imagine I am the President of Belarus. If Belarusian citizens did not break the law while ruling a district administration, if they were good examples for other citizens, and acted normally – they will stay. Naturally, if they have certain authority among the people. However, if these people broke the law they will be discharged.

-What will you do with the “Belarusian Republican Youth Union” and “Belaya Rus”?

–I don’t want to speak about them at all. These are people financed by the President, financed for our expense, from the budget, for tax payers’ money.  All they do is satisfy the whims of the state leader.  

–What will happen to the police?

–This should be reorganized immediately and necessarily. However, not by revolution. There are many specialists there who serve to the State, not to the man. We need to have a close look, to conduct personnel appraisal and decrease their quantity by 3 times, for a start. Not 2 or 4 times. As such quantity of policemen per person that we have now – and I don’t want to offend any African country -  is too much.

–What are you planning to do with unprofitable enterprises – close them or support them artificially?

–In most cases, it is impossible to close an unprofitable enterprise. Thus, it’s corporatization or changing the structure of an enterprise. There is no way out which is more suitable in our situation.

–Investors won’t come to all the enterprises, some of them will bankrupt and there will be new unemployed. Do you have a plan what to do with them?

–I think there will be liquidation of economic subjects through bankruptcy, or by any other means. This is inevitable. As for the people who will be laid off, we need to provide them with new working places by re-qualification. As well as to create new working places, including those in the field of entrepreneurship. However, we need laws to support this. All this should be legalized and normalized by laws within 6-8 months. It is not correct when an investor comes and the President tells him “I promise you will work here for 20 years!” I mean, how can you promise that, who told you that you will be here for 20 years? You’d say you’ll be here for 200 years! Everything should be realized through laws, not through decrees.

–What are you planning to do to revive small and medium business?

–Legally, taking the initiative as a President, I will grant freedom to entrepreneurs with simultaneous minimization of licensing. Secondly, taxes should be paid for incomes, not for made up indices. No incomes – no taxes, apart from land and ecological taxes, naturally – they are not big anyway. All the rest – depending on income!

–Does Belarus need assignment?

–I am strictly against that! Young people who study in state or private educational establishments – that doesn’t matter – should not be sent to work where someone wants them to work. No matter who – a President, a Rector or someone else. I am totally against that! This should be abolished straightaway. This is slavery. A person will go to work anywhere, to Bragin, to the Chernobyl zone, if you stimulate him – give him an apartment, or a beneficial credit with no interest rates. But what happens now is slavery. We need to abolish this assignment, abolish payment for the first education, either in higher educational establishments or in technical schools. On an urgent basis!

– When will young families be provided an opportunity to build their own apartments quickly?

–The state needs to find opportunities – and there are not many of them – to provide credit resources for young people. We should make a law which would give a person the options to get a credit or something else. Beneficial credit without interest rates. Not for one year, but for 15 years at the minimum, with an opportunity to pay the interest starting from the 5th year, for example.

– Won’t we live even worse than now?

–It is clear that we will live better, it really is! I live at his land, I know these problems, I come from an ordinary family. My parents were common people – they are buried in Chernobyl zone in Homel region. I know all this. You can see we will live much better even from my answers.

–I am worried about the Belarusian-Russian relationship as I work there. Will Belarus unite with Russia? Will there be a single currency?

–In 10-12 years Russia will unite with the EU – it is about to have visa-free regime in the near future. What will we, Belarusians, do then? The Republic of Belarus has common history with Russia. So what now lies before us and Russia is the integration into the world community. We are to do it with Russia’s support. As for the single currency, I think it is necessary to keep the Belarusian rouble at this stage. However, we need to strengthen it first. And then we should introduce the union’s currency, maybe, in some 2-5 years, whether it will be a rouble or some other currency. After that we will transfer from Belarusian and Russian rouble to this union currency.

–How possible is Belarusians’ visa-free entrance to the EU and when it may become reality?

–If the current system – I do not want to repeat the word “feudal” – but if the existing system remains, that I can’t imagine when it will be possible. The fact that they are trying to create a borderline zone – 25 kilometers from Vilnius in one direction or another – this is not serious. They cheat on people this way. We need legalization, unification, including abolishment of the death penalty, establishing normal relationship with the EU. This gives benefits to both Belarus and the EU. We trade; we have manufacturing and other relations. See what’s happening on the borders! People are standing in queues! I mean, we lose so much by making a German who goes to Belarus or a Belarusian who goes to Germany stand in this queue. We can change something in this regard only when we change the whole system, with the current President, or, most likely, with the new President. When I become President I will definitely do it fast.

– Will you involve your wife into politics?

–We are thinking on that. I have already involved her into politics two months ago, although she hesitated for two days. People even gossip about us in the internet, that those two nights I slept at the sofa. However, two days are not much. My wife is now an active participant of my campaign; she does a lot to convey my program to the voters.

– But still, will you let your wife be a politician after you become President?

–She does all the necessary work with regard to the set tasks, at present.  We’ll see what happens next. I think we’ll work together on creating a party, or rather, revival of the party – I used to be the leader of the Belarusian People’s Party, which was closed by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus in 2000. I think the party will be revived and participate in the political life of the country. I think my wife agrees with that.