Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko acknowledged on Thursday that his political career depended on his close ties with Russia.
“Unlike Russian authorities, Lukashenko held a referendum on Belarussian-Russian relations. A deviation from the rapprochement with Russia would mean the ‘political death’ of Lukashenko,” Lukashenko said at a meeting in Minsk with a delegation from the Volga Federal District headed by Kremlin envoy Grigory Rapota.
“Belarus has never turned to the left or the right or to the side of America, or our back to Russia,” he said, Interfax reported. “We absolutely do not create any problems with Russia, the Baltic states or Poland or Ukraine or the EU or America,” he said.
Lukashenko has tried to prevent a thaw in ties with the West from hurting vital economic ties with Moscow, which remains Belarus’ closest partner despite a series of energy and trade disputes in the past three years.
(MT, Reuters)