Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the West should not use the situation in Ukraine as an instrument of putting pressure on Russia.
“The West should not use Ukraine as a factor of pressure on Russia.
And not only Russia, because economic problems in Russia impact the
whole post-Soviet space,” Lukashenko said in Minsk on Monday
during talks with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.
“I must tell you, Nikolai Platonovich [Patrushev], that the main
conclusion to be made from what has been written and said, and from
attempts to scare us and you, is that Ukraine must remain Ukraine, not a
NATO base near our borders. We are not trying to conceal that this is
important for Russia and for Belarus,” he said.
“And, of course, we would like these people – Slavic people with whom
we have bonds of close affinity – to remain with us,” he said. “We want
to trade with them and to live along together with them. Our culture,
languages – everything – are alike. We lived, maintaining normal
relations with the Ukrainians, and we want to continue living this way
in the future,” Lukashenko said.
But he made a point that the Ukrainian people must decide their
future on their own. “Let them organize their life the way they want,
but without creating problems for their neighbors. This is most
important,” the Belarusian president said.
“I think the situation will get back to normal in due time. Ukraine
is sobering up already. Ukraine will not be in the West. No one is
waiting for her in the West. People in Ukraine are surely prepared to
cooperate. What we observed was a kind of glitch in politicians’ minds.
This happens sometimes,” he said.
“So, this aspect, the aspect connected with Ukraine, is a menace for
us and for Ukraine in that, I think, it should not create problems for
us,” Lukashenko said.
He also made a point that during his recent visit to Moscow he
discussed the Ukrainian agenda with the Russian leadership. “It’s good.
Perhaps we have an opportunity to talk with you today. You will hold
consultations with the security council secretaries, because we need to
foresee what will happen tomorrow. Coordinating our positions, if
necessary, is also very important,” Lukashenko said.
Patrushev, in turn, said that he had arrived in Minsk to hold
consultations between the Russian and Belarusian security councils. “We
will talk about our bilateral relations. We have no problems. We just
need to discuss things, to coordinate our plans and to implement them.
This is what we are doing,” Patrushev said.
Patrushev highly appraised Russian-Belarusian interaction. “We
interact very intensively in the multilateral format, first of all in
the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The latest meetings were
very important,” he said.
