Is Belarus leader Lukashenko rich? ‘Europe’s last dictator’ has gilded life, film claims
- Group of journalists exiled in Poland accuse Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of large-scale corruption
- Film resembles investigation by Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny who claimed Russia’s Vladimir Putin owned US$1.35 billion ‘palace’
A film accusing Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on gilded residences, planes and Rolls-Royce and Maybach cars has gained more than 3.7 million YouTube views since its release on Monday.
The film by the Poland-based opposition news service NEXTA was released as opposition activists gear up for a new round of protests against last year’s re-election of Lukashenko, who has ruled for 27 years and calls himself “the people’s president”. He is considered by many the “last dictator in Europe”.
In the more than an hour-long video, the journalists accuse Lukashenko of financing several luxury real estate items and expensive cars with public money, based on an anonymous source in the presidential administration.
The Belarusian authorities have not commented since the film’s release but Lukashenko last week accused his opponents of preparing a fake story in order to destabilise the former Soviet republic – a close Russia ally.
“I want you to understand: I have been working as president for a quarter of a century, and if there were already some billions, as they say, or palaces, I would have already been torn to pieces from all sides,” he said during a factory visit.
“I did not steal anything from my state, I did not take anything.”