«I will say something unpopular: people are living much better now. And those who want to live well can live well. This is how things stand today: war here, war there... Russia and the East are communicating with the West, Europe, through Belarus today. A huge flow passes through us,» Aleksandr Lukashenko said. «This creates bottlenecks, it creates competition, there is a struggle. But Belarusians must not sleep; they must keep moving.»

«You can earn something in any line of work. And enterprising people do earn. Those who don’t want to, well, they just live that way. It cannot be otherwise, no matter how unpopular it sounds,» he said.

The president also noted that Belarusians today have opportunities they did not have decades ago, including when it comes to employment and earnings. «Work wherever you want, earn whatever you can,» Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized.