-Says if protests get out of control, Russia will aid Belarusian government
Foreign Desk Report
MOSCOW: Russia is ready to intervene if the situation in Belarus gets out of control, although only as a last resort, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
“We proceed from the assumption that all the existing problems that are taking place today in Belarus will be resolved peacefully,” Putin said in a televised interview. He said that within the frameworks of the Union State and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Russia could help Belarus protect its sovereignty, national borders and stability.
Putin recalled a recent phone conversation with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who asked Putin to form a “certain reserve of law enforcement officers,” and Putin said he did.
Yet the two leaders agreed that the reserve will not be used unless the situation grows out of control and extremists “hiding behind political slogans cross certain boundaries,” Putin said.
According to Putin, Belarus is perhaps the closest country to Russia ethnically, linguistically, culturally and spiritually.
“Therefore, of course, we are not indifferent to what is happening there. But this is primarily the business of the Belarusian people,” Putin said. Belarus has been witnessing mass protests after incumbent President Lukashenko won a sixth term in the Aug. 9 elections, with the opposition refusing to recognize the results.Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday the Kremlin has set up a reserve police force to support Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko but it would not be used unless the unrest there got out of control, Interfax news agency reported.
Putin said Russia saw no need for now to use Russian forces in Belarus over the political crisis that followed a disputed Aug. 9 presidential election. Moscow felt the situation was normalising, the RIA news agency reported.
The former Soviet republic was plunged into turmoil following the election, which the opposition says was rigged to ensure that Lukashenko’s 26-year rule was extended further. Security forces have beaten protesters in the street and arrested thousands in a bid to stamp out mass demonstrations and strikes. Lukashenko denies electoral fraud.
