Opinions & Interviews

“I am already sick and tired of reading some reports in the Russia media. Various political whifflers and provocateurs are starting to find fault with me. But I do not know why Russia needs this policy. But it is up to them to decide,” the head of state said.

“I just want to say that this is not an alien country for you, not an alien land. We will always do what is good to Russian companies and to Russia in general. Belarus is ready to support all kinds of projects, be it construction projects or the ones connected with our main cooperation avenues. Please tell us if we can do something outside Belarus, we will join you immediately. You should always remember it,” the President stressed.

Alexander Lukashenko asked to inform Russia’s government about this position. “They should not doubt our honesty, integrity and reliability,” he said.

The President emphasized that there are no commercial interests behind these words. “We have never traded and will never trade our common security and our common independence,” the Belarusian head of state said.

“We do not have to choose between the West or Russia, the West or the East. We have never had such negotiations and have never had to choose between Russia and the West,” the President said.

“Russia is our common Fatherland. We have never had serious collisions; we just had to solve a number of tiny issues in our common home. But we have never had big problems and will never have. At least, Belarus will never cause them. And all western politicians who have been here will never say that we held talks at the expense of Russia or used Russia to threaten anybody. This will never happen,” Alexander Lukashenko said.

“At the same time, we say openly and honestly that we want to normalize relations with the European Union and the United States, just like Russia or any other state. But we cannot give up on our interests. We have already demonstrated it,” the President noted.

He stressed that Belarus has been under the pressure of the western sanctions for a decade. “But these are our problems. We will never attempt to address them at the expense of our brotherly Russia,” the Belarusian leader said.