"Let it lie down, it might come in handy." The tour drew a parallel between his father’s frugality and Lukashenko’s approach to preserving production facilities

Political columnist ONT Igor Tour in the new issue of the project “Propaganda” recalled several stories from the life of his father, who never threw away things that could one day be useful. According to the author of the project, this principle helps to understand the attitude of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to the preservation of production and technologies in the country.

As a child, Tour participated in a craft competition and asked his father to help with the idea. Instead of branches, moss and cones, he took out a burner and a piece of plywood from the garage.

My dad said, ‘I’ll go to the garage.’ And he extracted from some distant and long years of unlit corner a wonderful miracle – an electric device for burning wood and a piece of plywood, the author of the project said.

Then the device became popular among classmates not only as a tool for creativity.

“We burned everything in a row – desks, chairs, walls, burned a couple of backpacks from the girls, checked what would happen if you burn through paper, plastic, eraser, notebook and, I think, even one diary,” he recalls with humor.

However, the father himself could not explain where he got the device. According to the political observer, it didn’t matter to him: the thing was just stored “just in case” – and once really needed.

Later, “just in case” needed binoculars for the daughter of Tour. The girl had to watch the birds, and the father again found the right thing – army binoculars in a leather case.

“Dad, do you have binoculars in your garage by any chance? Your granddaughter needs... And, of course, the father calmly answers: “Eat, I will bring” – and brings a new army apparatus, – said Tour.

According to Igor Tour, such a household approach can be compared with the policy of preserving production competencies in Belarus. As an example, he cited agricultural machinery and microelectronics.

At the Amkodor-Lesmash enterprise, Alexander Lukashenko was awarded a five-ton AMKODOR W500C loader. Tour noted that such a technique is hardly necessary for the president in his personal household, but this episode reminded him of his father’s attitude to useful things.

Let’s be honest – Alexander Grigorievich does not need him in his personal household for sure. But I'm 200% sure that if my dad were asked if I could give him a five-ton loader, he'd still take it. Let it stand near the garage - suddenly it will come in handy someday, the observer said.

He linked this principle with the decision of Belarus to keep its own production of combine harvesters and microelectronics, including the Integral enterprise.

It was a pity for the president to give Soviet achievements in the production of agricultural machinery, when it was easier to buy imported ones. Thus, Belarus has its own combine harvesters – and not just appeared, but developed to such an extent that there was no direct need for a foreign one, Tur said.

According to him, similarly preserved competencies in microelectronics. Later, against the backdrop of sanctions and changes in external conditions, it turned out that these productions became especially in demand.

“Just in case” came, and we were ready for this only because the president was sorry to give this production to someone,” the author of the project concluded.