"Now Lukashenko Has A New Craze."

• 18.04.2026, 19:11

Migrants are in no hurry to help the dictator replace the labor shortage.

Why does Lukashenko increasingly call Belarusians "idlers" and considers replacing them with migrants?

That's what Charter97. org talked about.org talked to the well-known blogger and former political prisoner Dmitry Kozlov ("Gray Cat"):

- As for the population, as they say, if life were good, people would go to the regions, to the countryside, and to Belarus in general. But we don't see any migrants coming here.

Europe and the USA are being attacked, but nobody comes to Belarus. Probably about a million people have left Belarus, and these are mostly qualified people who can find themselves in Europe. They are the middle class, they are teachers, builders, doctors - the kind of people that Belarus needs, and there are none of them here. Since I'm from Vitebsk region, I basically track the statistics for this region: from 2016 to 2026, over the last 10 years, in six districts of Vitebsk region, the population decreased by 30%, and in half of the districts - by 25%. That is, there is a decline, extinction, someone is trying to move to Minsk.

Lukashenko decided to replace Belarusians with migrants, to call for Pakistanis - a well-known case, but the Pakistanis did not come. If the country was really successful and, as BT and ONT show, we have 25% GDP growth every year, how could it be?

If you look at Vilnius, where I am, there are Indians, Pakistanis, Bolt food delivery - there are actually only migrants there. That is, they feel fine here. But even Pakistanis refused to come to Belarus. Now they want to bring in North Koreans.

I don't know how well it will work. Perhaps the North Koreans will see some prospects in Belarus compared to what they have there, but, frankly speaking, I would even doubt it. We'll see how it turns out.