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2 Apr 2015

Lukashenko: I have never been a threat to the West

MINSK, 2 April (BelTA) – In an interview with Bloomberg Belarusian President Lukashenko said that he had never represented a threat to the West, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian leader.

“I cannot be a threat to the West. Absolutely. Even for a particular country. To be a threat to someone, you have to have a certain capability and ability to threaten. Who can I threaten? Absolutely no one. This is a far-fetched thesis, a fabricated idea,” said the Belarusian head of state.

Alexander Lukashenko noted that Belarus is a peace-loving country. "If I tried to threaten someone, Belarusians would not have elected me President. We are peaceful people, we do not want any threats. We do not need this, you know?" he said.

“Why do I have to threaten someone? Do we want more territory? No. God grant we manage the territory we have! We have only 10 million people, and we can freely feed 20-25 million. We need more population for this territory. Why do I need to threaten anyone? Do I have tremendous military, economic and financial resources to threaten anyone?" the President of Belarus continued.

"I understand this perfectly well. So I have never been an evil for Europe,” Alexander Lukashenko noted. “Europeans, and especially the Americans, let them not take offense at me, believed, at least in the past, that the Belarusian regime, as they called us, the internal state system and the type of government that we have do not correspond to their views and ideas, to what they have. They said we did not have enough democracy, that we violated human rights and therefore Belarus needed to be changed. They tried to change us using different methods. It did not work. Then they put this label on me – a dictator,” Alexander Lukashenko noted.

An issue of western sanctions against Belarus was raised during the interview. According to the Belarusian leader, any sanctions are an anachronism. There is no use in them. "Did we collapse when you imposed sanctions? No, we did not. The world is globalized, and you were supporters of this globalization,” said the President. “What have these sanctions led to? Nothing. You failed to choke off even a small Belarus, let alone Russia.”

“If you put pressure on us, the door is open to other states. We have cooperated very effectively, and still do, with Russia, China, India, other Asian and Persian, and African states, and Latin America. Thank God the relations with the United States are being normalized now," said the Belarusian head of state. “Therefore, sanctions are an anachronism and I talked about it. The time, and it is the chief justice, showed that I am right," he added.

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