You're reading: Lukashenko claims US promised him carefree old age on certain terms

Minsk, Oct. 7 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said he was tempted by promises of a carefree old age if he agreed to fulfill a number of conditions.

"Last week, one of ours who allegedly has access to me was invited and asked to tell me the following: we will give everything to your president from the American side, including [a carefree] old age, as to the president of Ukraine," Lukashenko told Russian journalists in Minsk on Friday.

However, the person chosen to convey these offers "refused to even discuss this topic," the Belarusian president said.

Addressing the issue of political prisoners, the head of state asked a rhetorical question: "Would the Russian Federation and the U.S. have reacted differently if thugs had launched a siege on the White House or the Kremlin?"

Those sentenced for masterminding illegal rallies are not political prisoners, he said.

"What political prisoners are you talking about? They were convicted based on a concrete article," Lukashenko said.

Attempts to put forward any conditions, demanding the release of political prisoners, have no prospects, the Belarusian president said.

"Let us live quietly. We have not been creating any problems for you," he said.

The response of Belarusian law enforcement services to unauthorized protests was more reserved than that of similar agencies in other countries, he said.

"We did not even pour water over them [participants in illegal rallies in Minsk on December 19, 2010]," Lukashenko said.

"I am not even mentioning Libya and Iraq. They are rocking Syria now. Why? What they need is oil, wealth," he said.