A certain prophesy attracted a lot of criticism back in the day. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the relevant statement in an interview with the TV channel Rossiya on 15 August, BelTA has learned.
The head of state remarked that Belarus-Russia relations had varied over the course of history and there had been periods of complications. “We fell out of Russia’s favor back then. For the wrong kind of policy. For someone wanting to grab the crown of Russian tsars in the Kremlin and so on and so forth,” the president said. “Belarus faced strong pressure because of that. But together with my colleagues I still pursued the policy we pursue now all the same.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that there had been times of serious disagreements with President Vladimir Putin. He recalled: “I told him: ‘You know, we can quarrel all we want but we should see interests of our own nation first. Secondly, time will come when we stand back to back and shoot back together.’ The RTR and all the [Russian TV] channels criticized us so much back then. Take these materials and watch them.” Many were convinced back then that the time when the two presidents have to stand back to back and fire back would never happen. “And your military said that Belarus is a small country. Only 800-1,000km. They can fire from the Moscow area over Belarus in order to hit any target in the West. It turned out it is not true,” the president added.
“It turned out that we are standing back to back,” the head of state stated. This is why he mentioned a conversation he had with Vladimir Putin as Russia was launching the special military operation in Ukraine. “He asked me to cover Russians from the rear. I said: what rear? He pointed to the junction of Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland. I thought to myself: ‘Well done! He feels that these scoundrels can do anything’. Back then I said that we will not allow anyone to shoot Russians in the back. We deployed practically half the army back then and covered that direction. They realized that we are not to be trifled with. This is why we stand now. Back to back at times. Sometimes while looking each other in the eye. And we fight against these cynics,” the president stressed.
According to the head of state, at present it is necessary to advance Belarus-Russia integration ties by following the example of relations between the leaders of the two states. “You in Russia and we in Belarus should follow in footsteps of the two presidents. You see our relations are absolutely tight. President Putin does not have the kind of relations he has with Belarus with anyone else. It is natural. No need to invent anything. No need for conspiracy theories. We are allies. It explains everything,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.