President Lukashenko, who calls himself ‘the purest president in the world’ in the film images, is said to have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on luxury homes, cars and the refurbishment of the government plane (including a gold-plated sink). In the hour and a half long film, the journalists explain from Nexta accompanied by ominous music from how Lukashenko cost the state 210 million euros. Patiently and slightly disgusted, they take the viewer past the residences of the president and luxury items such as gold pens. Their story is propped up by fellow journalists and anonymous sources.
Lukashenko said last week that his “opponents” were working on a “fake story” about him, “but I didn’t take anything.”
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The opposition is now preparing for another wave of protests against Lukashenko’s regime. In Belarus, protests have been going on against the president since August last year, over electoral fraud. The protesters are demanding that new elections be called. The demonstrations are still going on despite the repressive actions of the Belarusian state apparatus. Protesters are arrested and systematically tortured. Several demonstrators have died, a few dozen Belarusians have disappeared.
Telegram
The medium of opposition Nexta has played an important role all along, particularly through the live channel on the social medium Telegram, where a never-ending stream of information and footage is shared about the demonstrations, police brutality and oppression. Nexta operates just like the Belarusian broadcaster Belsat from Poland.
Lukashenko. Gold mine is not the first movie of it Nextafounder Stepan Svetlov. In 2019 he made another film about Lukashenko, which was promptly banned. Light mode of operation is reminiscent of that of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who also posts documentary films on YouTube in which he exposes corruption scandals. For example, in 2017 he made a film about the then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and recently a film about President Putin and the exorbitant palace he had built in Crimea.
Navalny revealed the film on the day he returned to Russia from Berlin, where he was recovering from an attempt on his life by the Russian secret service FSB. Upon arrival in Moscow, he was immediately handcuffed. He is currently imprisoned in a penal colony.
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