Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has called for schoolchildren to be mobilized to harvest apples and potatoes. The president, who is a former Soviet manager at a collective farm, is known for his verbal outbursts and radical proposals. He insisted that it is quite normal for children to be used to help in the domestic agricultural industry. In the past, schoolchildren and students were mobilized to help farmers harvest crops in the former Soviet Union.
Lukashenko said in a government meeting on Monday: "What kind of example are we going to set for our schoolchildren, our children? They say it's exploitation, but what kind of exploitation is it if a person goes to work for five or six hours? It will be happiness for the parents and good physical training for the children."
To put all this in context; in 2020, Lukashenko recommended that a daily glass of vodka and fieldwork on a tractor would help cure Covid-19. Recently, the President accused Ukraine of ‘provocations’ by sending 15,000 troops to the border area to build defenses and conduct reconnaissance. While at the same time allowing his Russian allies to station troops in the country for its invasion in February.
Source: euronews.com