BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/10/2007

Belarusian President Blasts Moscow Over Energy Pprice Hike

Speaking to a group of Russian journalists in Minsk on October 12, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said the increased gas and oil prices imposed by Russia at the beginning of the year have made Belarusian companies uncompetitive in the Russian market, Belapan reported. "Our products are not competitive in your country. In order to compete, we have to pay people here paltry wages, and one has to work in cold conditions in winter to cut costs. Are these normal relations? They are not," Lukashenka said. "Since they raised the price contrary to our agreements, we [must] also increase the price of services that we provide to Russia to offset this blow somehow. What is so unusual about this? And why does the Russian leadership criticize me? I'm dealing with an issue of survival," he added. Lukashenka also condemned Russia for not giving a stabilization loan to Belarus, which he said that Moscow offered in the first place. "All right, thanks, we agreed. [But] sometime later they started depicting us as fools who allegedly asked for money from the Russian Federation," he said, adding that Belarus will have no problems in obtaining loans from other countries. JM

...PLEDGES TO FIGHT ALONGSIDE RUSSIA IN POTENTIAL CONFLICT...

In his comments to Russian journalists, President Lukashenka said that Russia has no allies but Belarus in its objections to U.S. plans to establish elements of a missile-defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland, Belapan reported. "Who can you rely on here? On Ukraine, which wants to be in NATO? On the Baltic states and Poland, which already are in NATO? Do you have armed forces to contain [attacks], apart from the Belarusian army, west of Moscow?" Lukashenka said. He stressed that it was his idea to integrate the military forces of both countries, saying that he made such a proposal to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and then convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin to sign an agreement on a joint force. "I was thinking not only about myself and the Belarusians, but also about how our union state commitments would be met within the framework of the Belarusian-Russian Union. I thought that we should defend our territory together and the land that once fed us with cheap hydrocarbons," Lukashenka said. In the case of a European conflict, he added: "We would die for Russia here. We cannot let tanks advance [across Belarus] toward Moscow." JM

...AND REMAINS SKEPTICAL ABOUT CURBING HEAVY DRINKING

President Lukashenka also told Russian journalists that he is skeptical about any official efforts to curb the hard-drinking culture deeply rooted in Belarus, Belapan reported. "I don't believe that there will be a time when Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians stop drinking. This is our national tradition," the Belarusian president asserted. "We say that it's better to drink low-alcohol beverages, but we will drink anyway. It's inevitable," he added. Lukashenka revealed that he is not an alcohol lover. "I don't like beer at all. It has a bitter, nasty taste for me," he said. But Lukashenka also confessed that he has to drink in his role as president. "I'm not saying that I don't drink; how can a president not drink? Just imagine that there are presidents sitting around a table -- they are not just drinking, but drinking well, especially those from ex-Soviet countries." Lukashenka recalled his drinking sessions with former Russian President Yeltsin, recalling that it took him days to recover afterward. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/10/3-cee/cee-151007.asp