BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

29/03/2007

Belarusian President Denies Illness Rumors And Vows Not To 'Blackmail' Russia With Belarus's 'Beachhead' Position

President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has not been seen in public for more than two weeks, toured Minsk Oblast on March 28 and held a news conference, Belapan reported. Lukashenka denied rumors that he recently suffered a serious illness recently (see "RFE/RL Newsline," March 27, 2007). "I got a bit tired perhaps, but I didn't stop hockey training at that time. Even under these conditions -- and I'm used to working under extreme conditions -- I continued sticking to my work style. I appeared less on television but the opposition cannot do without me: When they don't see me for a day, they say I had a stroke," Lukashenka said. JM

President Lukashenka promised during a news conference on March 28 that he is not going to use Belarus's geopolitical position to "blackmail" Russia, Belapan reported. "The defense capability of Russia, Belarus, our common fatherland, is not subject to any blackmail," the Belarusian president said, adding that Belarus will honor all its military commitments to Russia. However, Lukashenka appears to have simultaneously suggested to Moscow what could happen if it ceased to be friendly toward Minsk. "Americans have announced the deployment of missile-defense installations in Poland, the Czech Republic -- NATO is on Russia's threshold today. Ukraine, Georgia, other [ex-Soviet] republics will join NATO if Americans decide on this. Tell me, what does our Belarus then become? This is the outpost, the beachhead that has always been our joint trump card," Lukashenka said. "We should not get bogged down in mutual accusations, or else they will separate us and do away with us separately," he added. He further assured Moscow that his current "talks with the West" are not intended to spoil relations between Belarus and Russia. Lukashenka did not elaborate on the nature of these talks. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/03/3-CEE/cee-290307.asp