The Russian diplomat justified the “friends” who refuse to communicate in Russian
Russian Ambassador to Belarus Dmitry Mezentsev called on Russians “not to be scared” if people in Belarusian cities refuse to communicate with them in Russian.
He stated this on the Spas TV channel, responding to a journalist who complained about a woman in Minsk who did not want to explain the way to her in Russian.
“Did you tell her “dick”? You have already extended your hand to her. Let every Belarusian decide for himself what language to speak with a visiting beauty from Moscow. I would urge you not to be afraid if they answer you in Belarusian in Minsk, Bobruisk, Pinsk or Brest. This is not something unkind towards you. This is a desire to emphasize: we are part of a large Orthodox family, but we have our own way of life and tradition, which we love no less than the larger Russian Orthodox tradition,” the diplomat noted.
According to him, Belarusian is mainly spoken by older people who have spent most of their lives in the village. As for the woman whom the journalist encountered in Minsk, the diplomat suggested that she was defending “the Belarusian world that she personally built.”
“I don’t think she defended him from you as a Russian citizen or as a Russian person. She was simply protecting him because she values him. I think that this attitude was formed when the Soviet Union collapsed. A great empire is crumbling, but what about an ordinary person? Many people then sought to find peace and salvation in the niche of nationalism. But it is impossible to escape there. Nationalism does not make people more open to the world and makes them stronger thanks to the support of friends and neighbors,” Mezentsev said.
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