BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/11/2008

Russia wanted missiles in Belarus: president

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, in an interview published on Friday, said Russia had suggested deploying missiles in his ex-Soviet state to counter a proposed U.S. missile system in nearby countries.

Lukashenko told the Wall Street Journal that even if Moscow failed to proceed with its proposal to deploy Iskander missiles, Belarus would consider buying them for its own use.

He also supported a Kremlin proposal to place the missiles in Russia's Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.

"Even if Russia does not offer these promising missiles, we will purchase them ourselves," the daily quoted Lukashenko as saying.

"Right now we do not have the funds, but it is part of our plans -- I am giving away a secret here -- to have such weapons."

Belarus gave up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons in the 1990s after the collapse of Soviet rule and has previously suggested it is prepared to deploy Russian non-nuclear weaponry if the Kremlin requested it.

But no mention has been made of the Iskander missiles.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, interviewed by the Paris daily Le Figaro this week, said Moscow was ready to drop plans to deploy the missiles in Kaliningrad if Washington abandoned its proposed missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Medvedev said the first reaction from the incoming administration of president-elect Barack Obama was "encouraging" and that Moscow was ready for negotiations.

Lukashenko has been accused by Western countries of crushing fundamental human rights since the mid-1990s, but has sought improved relations with the West for more than a year.

The European Union last month lifted an entry ban on him after courts released the last inmates deemed political prisoners. But a September parliamentary election was said by Western observers to have fallen short of minimum standards.

(Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSTRE4AD4PQ20081114

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