Opinion: all projects of Belarus’ Head of State are far-sighted and long-playing
The Belarusian leader’s projects are aimed not at a momentary solution of some problem, but at the country’s future development, which once again confirms that the Head of State thinks not in terms of the coming 5-10 years, but of centuries – as noted by Olga Shpilevskaya, the Chairperson of the Belarusian Women’s Union and Director of the Mir TV and Radio Company representative office in Belarus, in her talk with Alfa Radio
On March 6th, Aleksandr Lukashenko held a meeting focusing on the Belarusian nuclear power plant development. As he noted, the commissioning of its first power unit has made it possible to replace over 3bn cubic metres of gas and save $400m+ for the country. The second unit is scheduled to be launched in April.
Ms. Shpilevskaya emphasised that the Head of State is doing everything to ensure that Belarus remains independent and has specific sources for its development.
“The President pays great attention to economic issues, and the Belarusian nuclear power plant is nothing but our economy. It is a point for the development of cheap energy for all our industries, a point for attracting investors (since the latter come when it is profitable to organise cheaper production). Therefore, what doubts can there be about the fact that the decision to build a nuclear power plant on the territory of Belarus is a historic one? Moreover, important decisions are being made even now, when we are talking about the commissioning of the second power unit, about the further development of nuclear energy in Belarus,” she stressed.
The expert added that the issue of Belarus’ nuclear power plant construction is actively discussed – especially among those who shout about danger everywhere, “It seems to me that any sane person understands that there are a large number of nuclear power plants around Belarus, and people are just trying to play on our memory and feelings after the Chernobyl disaster. Meanwhile, I would like to repeat another time: look, there are so many nuclear power plants in the world, and anything that might happen there would reach us as well. We did not participate in the Chernobyl station construction, and we did not operate it. In addition, the President stressed that special attention is paid to the safety of the Belarusian NPP.”
Ms. Shpilevskaya believes a nuclear power plant is very profitable from the economic point of view, and this could be confirmed by other states that decided to move away from nuclear energy and experienced many problems as a result.
“Look at Lithuania – as an example. Here, the Ignalina nuclear power plant was closed for the sake of the European Union. I think that was a disaster for this country in general, it destroyed its economy. Lithuania is a small country, but it had its own nuclear power plant that gave electricity to neighbouring large Poland. As far as I know, that energy was supplied to Belarus as well. After the Ignalina station’s closure, the country collapsed. Actually, it now does only what it is told, Lithuania follows the Western countries’ directions. In general, the Lithuanian economy has been forced to knees,” the Chairperson of the Belarusian Women’s Union said.
