Russia ready to defend Lukashenka from Belarusians

The Kremlin agrees with Lukashenka that potential of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) can be used for preventing coup attempts in the CSTO member states.

This statement was made by Sergey Prikhodko, the aide to the President of Russia, RIA Novosti news agency reports.

Certain media have earlier said referring to an unnamed source in the Kremlin that the idea of CSTO was “distorted” by Alyaksandr Lukashenka and “used for his own purposes”.

“Criticism of Alexander Lukashenka’s estimations of CSTO use is not correct. He spoke out the positions, which are agreed upon with the Russian party,” Prikhodko told journalists.

Lukashenka said earlier the CSTO member states were negotiating on using the Collective Rapid Response Forces to prevent coup attempts.

Prikhodko added that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was “satisfied with the character and the tone of the discussion of key issues of bilateral cooperation” that took place during the recent meeting of the two heads of state in Sochi.