MOSCOW - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has categorically denied allegations that Minsk is seeking "to wrestle something away from Russia" by taking advantage of a difficult situation in the Russian economy.
“Some media have alleged that the allies want to come to Moscow to wrestle or pinch something away from Russia in this situation,” Lukashenko said. “If anyone wants to snatch something away from Russia today by demanding something from it in these difficult times, this is not Belarus,” Lukashenko said at a press conference following a Supreme Eurasian Economic Council session on Tuesday.
“Please don’t heap the blame on Belarus. We haven’t come here with an outstretched hand, and if our Russian brothers need something and we can do this, we will always offer our shoulder,” he said.
“Nobody has arrived in Moscow just for the sake of it. This was agreed upon with the Russian head of state, who is the initiator of the Customs Union in its current shape,” Lukashenko said. “We have supported and will support him,” he said.
Lukashenko said that, contrary to media allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not going to meet with him, Lukashenko said Putin and he had discussed the entire range of aspects of the Russian-Belarusian relationship during his current visit to Moscow.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] and I have discussed the entire range of problems affecting Belarusian-Russian relations. They are not that complicated, and if presidents address them, they can always be resolved. These problems are being resolved today as well,” the Belarusian leader said, noting that no fuss should be created around these matters.
