Belarusian president inadvertently triggers international striptease

Belarusians in the buff after taking president Alexander Lukashenko’s words literally

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko told people to 'get undressed and work until you sweat', sparking hilarity online (AFP/Getty)

Delivering a rousing motivational speech requires the orator to tread a fine line: Undercook it and your audience is bored. Overdo it, and you may just find the entire population of the country are taking their clothes off to mock you.

If you are an authoritarian dictator, this is an undesirable outcome.

Yet this is the situation Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko currently finds himself in.

Mr Lukashenko was delivering a speech during the fifth All-Belarusian People’s Assembly, where he was making grave pronouncements about the importance of innovation and computer technology to the economy of the country. “We have mastered this”, he said.

So far, so uplifting, before he went on to add: “But all our life, simple: it is necessary to get undressed and work till you sweat”.

Too far.

Thousands of Belarusians have indeed proved they have mastered using modern technology by responding to the president’s pleas to further Belarus’s glory by posting naked photographs of themselves at work.

Instagram and Twitter are awash with Belarusians in the buff, using laptops and office furniture to cover their modesty.

The hashtag #раздеватьсяиработать (#getnakedatwork) has even seen some efforts from those outside the country, apparently expressing their solidarity with those in Belarus.

“The president said it is necessary… No excuses”, one Instagram user wrote.

“We could not disobey”, one woman said.

“This is the first thing I have like from our president. Very comfortable,” wrote another.

Mr Lukashenko has been president of Belarus since 1994, three years after Belarus declared independence from the USSR. He was referred to as the “last dictator in Europe”, by the Bush administration, after he rejected US calls for economic reform in exchange for financial aid from the IMF.

In 2012 hundreds of teddy bears carrying pro-democracy messages were parachuted into the capital city of Minsk. After denying the incident for a fortnight, Lukashenko eventually caved in and admitted it had happened, ordering the arrest of two journalists in Belarus after they reported on the stunt which had been carried out by a Swedish PR firm.