Belarus president takes five-year-old ‘heir’ to military drills

 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko took his five-year-old son with him to the recent Fall-2008 Russia-Belarus military exercises, Radio Liberty has reported.

The Fall-2008 exercises took place earlier this month and involved around 8,500 personnel, military and special hardware, including over 40 aircraft, more than 60 tanks and around 250 armored vehicles.

Lukashenko’s son Nikolai was photographed observing the exercises and receiving reports with his father. Both of them were dressed in the uniform of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Belarus.

Lukashenko also referred to his son as his “heir” and the future president of Belarus.

Following the military exercises, Lukashenko said the Belarusian army had “risen from its knees.”

“As a general and a man who has given his whole life to the army, I am ashamed,” former Belarusian defense minister Pavel Kozlovskiy told Radio Liberty.