Lukashenka complains about Putin and Medvedev to Pravda newspaper

The Belarusian dictator has written an open letter addressed to the editor-in-chief of Russian newspaper “Pravda” Boris Komotsky.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has felt it necessary to inform the newspaper about “the real situation which has shaped in the so-called gas conflict” between Belarus and Russia. In the letter the background of the conflict is related in detail, and the position of the Belarusian side, BelaPAN informs.

“I would like to underline from the start that the negotiations process has been in fact thwarted, and the Russian side is to blame for that,” Lukashenka noted. “Though we had beet taking a flexible and constructive stance all the time, offered different variants of the mutually beneficial solution of the issue, were ready for mutually acceptable compromises. Belarusian initiations were ignored, and our representatives, including high-level members of the government, were made to sit in Gazprom reception rooms for hours”.

“As it turns out, speaking about unacceptability of revising the lessons of history in words, the Russian leadership in reality sizes up the sanctity of fraternal ties in cubic metres of gas and barrels of oil,” the letter underlines.

“We have absolutely nothing against the pragmatism in the economic cooperation,” Lukashenka continues. “But it should concern the both sides equally, considering the whole range of bilateral relations, and be in harmony with the spirit of the integration processes underway. And certainly, it should be based upon the strict keeping to the accepted obligations by the sides, without any exceptions, limitations and arbitrary interpreting”.

“Let us be frank: is there only money interest behind the actions of Gazprom in this story? Could several hundred million dollars be decisive for the financial situation of one of the largest trans-national corporations? I am convinced that the answer is known for everyone,” the Belarusian ruler writes.

The underpinning of the conflict, according to Lukashenka, was absolutely different: “It is just a part of that unfriendly policy which is carried out calculatingly against Belarus for the last several years. One should just recall the recent “milk”, “meat”, “sugar”, “oil” and other wars; to say nothing of the line intentionally followed by the majority of Russian mass media, which had turned into the real informational aggression”.

The author of the letter believes that the objective is obvious: to pressurize the leadership of Belarus, to make them yield in of the national interests of the sovereign state, to get the sweet spots of the Belarusian assets.

“Here, in Belarus, we see all that and make a cold evaluation of that. As a result, unfortunately there less and less supporters of deep integration with Russia among our citizens. Belarusians start to look at the country closest to us, Russia, with suspicion, expecting any unpredictable blows from it,” Lukashenka states.

The text of the open letter was published in “Pravda” newspaper, which is the printed organ of the Communist Party of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, on June 28.