"There Is A Vague Suspicion That Belarusians Are In For Quite A Few Surprises Ahead"

• Alesya Matusiewicz, "Salidarnasts"
• 21.01.2026, 19:02

Lukashenko issued a "valuable" instruction.

The accident on the heating main in the Belarusian capital has once again highlighted Lukashenko's attitude to the "people". And not at all in the sense of the ruler's care for his subjects.

In January frosts, five districts of Minsk were left without heat and hot water. Power engineers promised to fix quickly, but there were objective difficulties, unforeseen difficulties - on the second day after the accident, the "hot phones" evasively answer that today everything should be fixed. It seems to be a common situation. But no.

First of all, apart from the capital, in the same frosty days, accidents happened in Zhodino and Borisov, a water line burst in Gomel. And this is despite the fact that, as we remember, every summer Belarusians are shut off hot water for two weeks or more for this very purpose - to carry out preventive maintenance and prepare heating systems for the heating season. To avoid accidents and interruptions.

And every winter - they happen. Does it appear that they are repairing the wrong thing, or the wrong place, or the wrong way, based on the meager and diminished, to put it mildly, perpetually underfunded state of the housing and utilities sector? Like the ostentatious "putting in order" in farms by November 7.

Or like patching of roads - "patching" every year, often, as residents note, in the same places. And the condition of many, especially village roads, if it's not the M1 highway or the road to the ruler's residence, leaves much to be desired.

Secondly, the reaction of the authorities is indicative. Alexander Lukashenko, as he likes to do, said out of the blue at a meeting with the governor of Kirov region of the Russian Federation that he couldn't sleep - he was so worried about the condition of heating mains in the cold weather.

- They say that somewhere near Minsk something began to leak in the morning. Heating mains - they increased the pressure... As usual. And I thought three days ago: I think I should warn the bosses," BelTA quoted the ruler.

Sore knees, of course, could "predict" Lukashenko's cold snap, but the question immediately arises - if he felt anxious in advance, why didn't he prevent, so to speak, didn't warn the power engineers?

Was he worried that the Belarusians would remember his own statement that he personally asked the higher powers "to make it frosty and snow"? Or, reveling in his own eloquence and importance, sometimes not up to logic?

Lukashenko immediately issued a valuable instruction: to heat water in the pipes less and lower the pressure, so that "not 25, but 20 degrees will be enough in the house.

It is characteristic that the Ministry of Energy immediately reported that "they will take measures" (as if there are idiots among the energy workers and in the Ministry of Housing and Utilities who could not act without a wise hint).

Lukashenko's words are another example of his trademark cynicism and disregard for people's needs. It's even surprising that this time he didn't mention "ticktock, complain" - he just condescendingly ordered "not to overdo it with temperature". The Belarusians are not sugar-coated, they'll tolerate it.

It's as if we're talking only about apartments and "sissies," and not about kindergartens, schools, clinics and hospitals in the affected areas.

As if we do not know better than anyone that even within the same city there is a complete mess with heating: in one neighborhood people walk around the apartment in sweaters and grandmother's socks, in another - undress down to a T-shirt, because "it is hot as in Tashkent". Although according to the norms it should be 18-24 degrees.

It seems as if the problems are exhausted only by cold radiators, and not by the increased load on power grids (heaters in stores have been dismantled, many people write in social networks that they "warmed themselves from the stove"), and also by dry air in the house and frosty smog outside, which can be dangerous for health (the Ministry of Emergency Situations and medics advised not to open windows and not to take long walks outside).

Finally, as if it were normal at all - that, unlike in Kiev, where people were left without light and heat because of Russian bombings, in peaceful Belarus there are communal accidents every now and then, and the housing and utilities sector seems to be literally cracking at the seams.

At the same time, the citizens have been paying for utilities faithfully all the way, while the authorities only repeat that we are underpaying.

Lukashenko said, "We are Slavic people, we know how to do it: to create problems for ourselves and then heroically overcome them". But the thing is that it's not us, but you.

Saving on housing and communal sphere to the detriment of the quality of services, ignoring the accumulated problems, habit to show off and forced "subbotniks" - this is Lukashenko's style, which his whole vertical has absorbed from top to bottom.

And there is a vague suspicion, turning into a certainty, that Belarusians are expecting a lot of the same unpleasant surprises with the subsequent shocking cleaning up of the consequences. And with the advice from the series of "make the temperature lower", "eat more modestly", "be patient and do not whine".

P.S. According to the forecasts of forecasters, the frosts will not recede in the coming days.

Alesia Matusevich, "Salidarnasts".