Lukashenka won’t extradite dictator Bakiyev

According to him, the ousted head of Kyrgyzstan is “under the protection of the Belarusian state and its president”.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka told on May 4 in an interview to Reuters he didn’t plan to hand over former president of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev to the new authorities. Belarusian TV showed some fragments of the interview.

The Belarusian ruler told the news agency the request on Bakiyev’s extradition would be “hopeless and humiliating” step for the interim government. According to him, the ex-president is “under the protection of the Belarusian state and its president”.

On May 4, the Kyrgyz authorities said Bakiyev was stripped of his presidential status and ordered prosecutors to bring him to criminal responsibility and seek his extradition. The interim government says the ground for stripping Bakiyev of the presidential status and immunity was the fact he allowed killings of civilians during protest demonstrations in Bishkek on April 7. a reward of 20,000 to 100,000 dollars was offered for assistance in searches of Bakiyev and his relatives.

“We won’t give anything for free”

“We have done a lot to build norm neighbourly relations with our western partners,” Lukashenka said.

“What concerns the diplomatic and political levels, we have had contacts at all levels, I’ve had meetings as president, though you, the West, don’t like and don’t accept me. I don’t tell the details, you know this well,” he said.

According to him, Belarus and the West build very good business relations. “We have rather good relations in the areas of finance and crediting,” Lukashenka noted. ”I mean here the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, different funds, which invest in and offer gratuitous aid in many directions to our state.”

“Maybe the West would like to see more rapid pace of privatization. Both the West and East want it,” he supposed. “But I have always said: we are not against this, but we have national interests and won’t give anything for free.”

“Who likes this thesis? Probably not everyone,” Lukashenka said. “We are not against, this is a normal process, but there should be market conditions and good price. There hasn’t been and won’t be any quackery and corrupted privatization in Belarus. This may irritate our Western partners, so they blame us for the slow speed of economic reforms, to be more specific slow privatization of the state property.”

About “bookkeepers” from Russia

Lukashenka also said he was ready for pragmatic relations with Russia.

“In relations with the Russian Federation we have made a giant stride towards each other. But recently the Russian leadership has decided to build absolutely pragmatic relations with Belarus,” the Belarusian ruler stated. “But the pragmatism must not destroy everything that has been accumulated up till now with the current and former Russian leadership. This suits both the Belarusians and the Russians.”

“If the Russian bookkeepers calculated that they create too many benefits for the Belarusians, I say these calculations are not correct. This is lopsided unilateral pragmatism. We shouldn’t allow this,” Lukashenka said.

“These are one-sided calculations: customs duties on oil and oil products are imposed only on one member of the Customs Union, Belarus, but not imposed on another Union member, Kazakhstan. This looks like corruption.”

About presidential elections

“I am still more inclined towards holding the elections at the beginning of next year, after the term of the current president expires,” said Lukashenka.

Under the law, presidential elections are appointed not later than five months in advance, and are held on Sunday not later than two months before expiration of authorities of the previous president. So, the deadline for the presidential elections is February 6, 2011.

Head of the Central Election Commission Lidzia Yarmoshyna told in an interview to BelaPAN she didn’t exclude holding elections in autumn 2010. “Of course, it would be more comfortable to carry out the elections after New Year. The public sentiments will be different,” she thinks.