Opinion: foreigners want to live in Belarus since they can feel safe here
President Aleksandr Lukashenko signed a decree on March 5th to grant Belarusian citizenship to 284 people, including 28 minors, from 22 countries: Ukraine, Armenia, Vietnam, Georgia, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Moldova, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Uzbekistan, Estonia, and others. A deputy of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, Sergei Klishevich, commented on the news in his talk with Alfa Radio.
The MP noted that Belarus is a hospitable country, and this is its peculiar feature. “It is clear that today, in the context of a geopolitical struggle when Belarus is fighting to defend its sovereignty, independence, and security, we are very careful about granting citizenship to foreigners, conducting serious checks of all applicants. After all, there are quite a lot of people who would like to obtain citizenship by presenting themselves as supporters of Belarus but to later harm our state. Therefore, Belarus is very scrupulous about this issue,” he explained.
As noted by the presenter of the programme, Polina Konoga, the Head of State simultaneously decided to reject citizenship applications of foreigners who repeatedly violated the laws of Belarus and who did not work in the republic for a long time.
“True, we perfectly understand what time we live in,” Mr. Klishevich said. “The safety of our citizens is well ensured, and we are grateful to our security forces for this. In general, people, of course, want to live in Belarus, because it is fair here: those who work can get everything they need. People from all over the world, including the European Union, want to live here. Foreigners get citizenship and feel safe in our peaceful country.”
