Lukashenko opines on possible food crisis, ways to prevent it

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko opined on the possible food crisis and ways to prevent it as he gave an interview with AFP in Minsk on 21 July, BelTA has learned.

"Now everyone is talking about hunger. I agree that we are very close to that point. Famine is knocking on the door. Many are starving already. You could say, ‘Not critical yet'. How is it not? A child dies every 10 seconds in the world. Not a famine yet? It is. It's going to get worse. I am closely monitoring the harvesting campaign and ask a lot from farmers and the whole country. We must crop everything. We need to mobilize. Famine will bring about dictatorship, including in France. Because we need to save people. Not to feed, but to save them from dying," the Belarusian leader said.

According to him, such strict requirements from the head of state can be regarded as a dictatorship, but in this case they are justified by an important goal - to improve people's lives, to prevent critical situations. "You are welcome to criticize me for this. But I want people to live better tomorrow. It is not like I have gone crazy, sitting here, in the center of Europe, in a relatively small country, with a small population, and seek to impose my will and harass my own people, who voted for me a long time ago and still support me," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.