25th Anniversary of Chernobyl Disaster as Mirrored by Mass Media

The topic of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl disaster has been actively covered by Belarusian media. Periodicals stated that President of Belarus, Chairman of the Supreme State Council of the Union State Alexander Lukashenko annually visited affected regions during the anniversary days of Chernobyl disaster.

The topic of the 25^th anniversary of Chernobyl disaster has been actively covered by Belarusian media. Periodicals stated that President of Belarus, Chairman of the Supreme State Council of the Union State Alexander Lukashenko annually visited affected regions during the anniversary days of Chernobyl disaster.

In the course of Alexander Lukashenko’s visit to the contaminated area reporters asked the Leader of Belarus a question about union relations between Belarus and Russia: taking into account the fact that this year the Union State celebrates its 15^th anniversary, some political analysts say that, having united with Russia, Belarus got not only benefits but also problems of its neighbor, and in particular – terrorism. “The whole world is moving towards deep amalgamation and integration, and, unfortunately, everything is integrated and amalgamated. Therefore, Russia’s problems have become the problems of Belarus, whereas Belarusian problems have become the problems of Russia. There’s nothing you can do,” noted Alexander Lukashenko on the TV channel “Stolichnoe TV” (26.04.2011).

Mass media noted significant steps taken by Belarus to overcome the consequences of Chernobyl disaster. “For 25 years Belarus has assigned about $ 19 billion to overcome the consequences of the disaster,” stated the newspaper “Respublika” (26.04.2011). “It is a lot”.

The media also stressed the role of the Union State as regards this problem: overcoming of the aftermath of Chernobyl disaster became an important guideline for ??the Union of Belarus and Russia from the very beginning. It was noted that new tasks came to the foreground too. Among them is the necessity to create conditions for reconstruction and development of the affected areas using modern scientific developments.

“All in all 19 pilot projects aimed at selective rehabilitation of agricultural land and settlements in 12 out of 21 most affected districts have been implemented” within the framework of the Union State. These projects aimed to introduce modern production and produce processing technologies, to increase production profitability and competitiveness of enterprises, to create additional employment,” stressed the Chairman of the Union State Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Environmental Issues, Environmental Management and Elimination of Disaster Consequences, deputy of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus V.Adashkevich (“Soyuznoe Veche”, 26.04.2011).