BELARUS: President Alexander Lukashenko says Belarus will forge its own foreign policy, after bitter row with longtime ally Russia

President Alexander Lukashenko says Belarus will pursue its own foreign policy after a bitter row with longtime ally Russia. In a rare and exclusive interview with Reuters, Lukashenko described an increase in Russian gas prices as a "barbaric action", adding Moscow was conducting foreign policy in the same manner as the United States. Belarus, isolated by the West and smarting from a bitter row with longtime ally Russia, will forge its own path, rejecting European demands for political reform and Moscow's desire it kowtow, the country's president said. Alexander Lukashenko told Reuters in a rare interview on Tuesday (February 6) there was no question of agreeing to the EU's "impossible demands" on free media, fair elections and the rule of law set last year as a condition for improving relations. Lukashenko, in power since 1994 and accused by the EU and the United States of rigging elections, jailing opposition figures and shutting down dissident media, offered little prospect of change to his uncompromising style of government. But he said his country of 10 million wanted to remain both open to the West and close to Moscow. Russian policy towards Belarus, however, was both incoherent and chauvinist. He painted a vision of a bi-polar foreign policy based on friendly relations with neighbours on both sides. The EU and Washington have slapped a visa ban and asset freeze on him and his top officials and are set to curtail trade ties later this year. "We always wanted them and us to sit at the same table," Lukashenko said of the European Union, acknowledging that it had been a mistake to be reliant on relations with Russia alone. "How is it possible to fix relations in that atmosphere (of visa bans)? This is more like the policy pursued by Russia of flipping a rope around the neck and then saying 'let's talk,'" he said. Russia doubled the gas price at New Year and imposed a higher oil export duty after a January row that led to a three-day shutdown of a major crude pipeline to the West. "It was terribly painful that these actions were undertaken by our ally, the country which is closest to us," said Lukashenko. "Russia needs to abandon its superpower attitude and its way of looking on us in a condescending fashion as a 'little brother'," the 52-year-old former state farm manager said. He said Belarus provided the right to security, employment and a stable income to all its people and could boast it had avoided the chaotic politics, social disintegration and armed violence that has marred other post-Soviet republics. Lukashenko said Russia's "barbaric action" in doubling gas prices and raising oil export duty would cost Belarus, sandwiched between Poland and Russia, some 5 billion U.S. dollars, equal to 10 percent of annual economic activity. Minsk would recoup losses by charging market rates for Russian army bases on its soil, for transit of goods to Russia and for border protection, moves likely to enrage Moscow, which believes Belarus has enjoyed too good a deal from cheap energy in the past. But Lukashenko said he wanted good relations with Russia, Minsk's main trade partner. "The Belarussian leadership has made no fundamental change in its policy. Belarussians and Russians are practically one and the same people. That is the basis of our policy. But we will tolerate neither pressure nor lies in our relations with Russia." He acknowledged a project conceived in the mid-1990s to unify Belarus and Russia was troubled and blamed what he called Russia's imperialist desire to swallow his country rather than establish ties on the basis of sovereign equality. Belarus would overcome the economic blow of higher energy costs by increasing external borrowing and lowering profit targets at large state firms that dominate a centrally- planned economy that has enjoyed 10 percent growth in recent years. He said that even if Russia cut all oil supplies, which he described as financial madness for Moscow, Minsk could keep its refineries running and its economy bubbling by attracting foreign investment. Economic analysts say cheap Russian oil and gas has been a key ingredient for Belarus's strong growth and its industry will struggle to compete if paying world market rates for energy. Political or economic pressure would not deflect him from what he called his defence of the interest of the Belarussian people. "It is very difficult to break us. In fact it impossible to break us. And no one will bring us to our knees," the president said.

ITN Source | February 7, 2007

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