Stanislau Shushkevich: “An agreement in the frames of CSTO is new Warsaw Pact”

Stanislau Shushkevich, former head of the Supreme Council of Belarus, condemned creation of collective response forces in the frames of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization).

“It’s a new Warsaw Pact,” Stanislau Shushkevich commented on the agreement on creation of collective response forces to the Charter’97 press center. “It will be a structure, controlled by Russia. Counter-NATO. Actions of Lukashenka are deviation from all norms of the Belarusian laws. It was a promise that our troops wouldn’t take part in international conflicts, now it is broken. Russia has brought to heel many post-Soviet countries, expect for Ukraine, Georgia, and the Baltic countries. Russia takes Belarus by the throat. Our people suffered most of all during the Great Patriotic War. They decided to hide behind the Belarusian people again. We shouldn’t sign these pacts. We have no enemies on the West and on the East.”

Stanislau Shushkevich commented on the recent statement of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who said the CSTO response forces wouldn’t be less effective than similar NATO structures.

“It’s ridiculous. NATO is a defensive organization. It is senseless to resist it. One should understand that it is an old imperial Russian policy to oppress everyone they can. They want to protect themselves with lives of the brotherly peoples. I’d like to note that it is a purpose of not Russia but of the Russian authorities,” Stanislau Shushkevich said.

Former head of the Supreme Council of Belarus also responded a statement of Lukashenka who said that Belarus wouldn’t take part in international conflicts in the frames of the collective response forces.

“Assurances of Lukashenka can make a cat laugh. He said on December 17 there would be no devaluation in Belarus. He said this to his people on TV. What do we have in result? We shouldn’t believe Lukashenka,” the politician thinks.