Till Schweiger praises the Belarusian dictatorship. (archived image)Image: trapezoid
A sudden turning point? Till Schweiger travels around the authoritarian state of Belarus and has nothing but praise for the country that supports Putin's wars. Until there was a headwind.
Steven Sova/t-online
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Till Schweiger was full of praise. Belarus is a “very clean and safe country”. The movie star continued: “I like the people here, they are very friendly and always smiling.” Till Schweiger apparently has no problem with Alexander Lukashenko's dictatorial rule, with Germany's foreign ministry warning that a person could be arrested and convicted “at any time, even on fabricated pretexts.”
“I really like the food here”the 60-year-old said in a press conference uploaded to YouTube on Sunday as part of a public relations tour for an advertising project he is currently completing.
Excerpts from Schweiger's press conference in the Belarusian capital Minsk are circulating on social media. There you can hear how the actor emphasizes that he has only heard of the “best” in the country. Critics criticized Schweiger:
«Terrorist attacks are carried out every day in Belarus against people who think differently? Civil society and independent media were crushed. 1,300 political prisoners, died, tortured and ill-treated in prison? Till Schweiger doesn't care about anything, he prefers to praise dictatorships. “
The actor was called “pathetic”. “You'd be hard-pressed to go any lower,” others said. Others wondered how “stupid” you must have been to have never heard of what it was like under Lukashenko's dictatorship.
everyday horror #belarus Against those who think differently? Civil society and independent media smashed 1,300 political prisoners, died, and were tortured and abused in prison?
interested #tilschweig Nothing, he prefers to praise Lukashenko’s dictatorship. Poor! pic.twitter.com/b3PLxh9U1S— Marco Fieber (@mfieber) November 9, 2024
The headwind seemed too cold for Schweiger. On Sunday, he suddenly spoke out on his Instagram account and wrote:
“I recently attended a press conference specifically to talk about my involvement in an advertising film campaign and sharing the creative work behind it with the audience. I was convinced that the campaign would be entirely focused on advertising and its content.”
“Confusion or misunderstanding”
The former movie hero, who is trying to establish himself as a Belarusian advertising figure, continued: “Unfortunately, I found that parts of the press conference were taken out of context and used to support support that is neither in line with my beliefs nor message of my intentions.” Schweiger did not explain exactly what context was missing from his enthusiasm for Belarus.
Instead, the producer said: “To be clear: I do not support any political or ideological position related to this material and I distance myself from it.” What exactly did he mean by this? Not sure. He clearly wants to distance himself ideologically from the authoritarian regime that supports the attack on Ukraine.
Now I regret Schweiger, “This situation has led to confusion or misunderstanding”.
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