Lukashenka: No dialogue with the West

The Belarusian dictator again accused the European Union of dishonesty and said he could not talk to them.

“The West, America? It’s impossible to talk to you. One cannot talk to you. They are dishonest people, they think and do different things,” Lukashenka said in Minsk on Friday at a meeting with heads of some Russian media (the list of these media is not specified).

He reminded that German and Polish foreign ministers had visited Belarus ahead of the elections. “These two ministers asked for a meeting with me ahead of the elections. I thought: it’s very strange. I didn’t understand why they were visiting me,” Lukashenka noted.

“We talked in a peaceful tone. They were saying: we understand and support you… Now know why the came. They wanted to lull me,” the dictator said.

“There was a scenario. I have never thought that brawl is possible in our country, where the fifth column [the opposition - Interfax] consisting of 800 people, among them 400 militants, who exist in Minsk only on the money from foreigners,” Lukashenka said.

According to the dictator, the Belarusian authorities were liberal when registering presidential candidates, observation and voting. “We lifted entry restrictions. Anyone was able to come and observe,” Lukashenka said.

“Why did we detain them [the organizers of the unauthorized demonstration on December 19]? We wanted to know who they are, where the money are from,” the dictator noted adding that “unfortunately, there also was Russian [money - Interfax] there”. “We know these schemes confirmed by their words,” Lukashenka noted. “The said everything: where they had been, who had taken them there, in what villas they had worked out these programmes, how the money had been transferred,” he continued.

The dictator has denied blankly the reports about a possibility of tortures in the KGB pre-trial detention centre. “If only any information about tortures would be received by me… But in our time, in the centre of Europe… What for?” he said.

At the same time, Lukashenka has noted that involvement of special services of Poland and Germany is “a result of investigation: they [the organizers of the rallies] are speaking for the camera.” “Why Poland and Germany have become so agitated? We have offered facts – you can check them. They do not want to check them,” he stressed.

“You know, the great West is startling,” the dictator said. “They are ready to donate 87 million Euro via certain funds. The money of tax-payers are forwarded to the fund, the fund is to earn a little. Then this money travel through Lithuania, Poland, and a part via Ukraine. This |fifth column” receives about 10 per cent – as we have figured that up in previous years,” Lukashenka underlined. “It is their business, their commerce,” he underlined. “We have the right to know that,” the dictator stated.

He observed that “in the run-up to the election “a fabrication” was received from the West, that he has “$6 billions or $11 billions of stolen money in his account”. Lukashenka said such accusations are senseless: “How could it be possible to steel $11 billion in Belarus? Recently “Forbes” magazine has published a rating of billionaires – where is Lukashenka? There are people with $1.5 billion and $1 billion [in the rating]. Why am I not there with my $11 billion?” “I hope that about 95 per cent of people in Belarus think Lukashenka is not a thief,” he said. The ruler noted that Russia had started to think that “Lukashenka is flirting with the West”. “I understand that no one needs me in the West: I am an ideological alien for them, I cannot sing their songs,” he said. Lukashenka has underlined that 48% of the Belarusian export goes to the EU and the US, which could not be ignored. However, the dictator stressed that no leader of the country “can make Belarus turn its back on Russia.”