Commitment to traditions and morals helps Belarus overcome economic difficulties, said President Alexander Lukashenko on 8 January in the course of the ceremony of awarding the Spiritual Revival Awards and special prizes in the area of culture and arts for 2009.

Following the tradition, this event takes place on Christmas days. According to the President, this is not only the time of merry and greetings, but also of deep considerations about one’s achievements and failures in the previous year.

The year 2009 was very difficult and challenging for the entire planet, said the Head of State, and Belarus was not an exception. However, according to the President, "we can learn the lessons only if we understand the real reasons behind the cataclysms in the world, if we find out what caused the trials and tribulations that millions of people on the planet had to endure."

Alexander Lukashenko expressed his firm conviction that the economic crisis became a consequence of a moral crisis. "Human jealousy, theft, deception, unscrupulous practices in financial markets, corruption have been piling up for years and engulfed the entire world," he said. "A moral crisis is much worse than any economic breakdown, because it takes much more time and effort to resolve it. Treachery, baseness and lie corrupt one’s soul and undermine the physical and moral health not only of an individual man but also of entire nations, peoples."