MINSK, June 10. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed as groundless the reproaches addressed to Moscow and Minsk over the export of Ukrainian grain. Speaking at a conference on the authorities’ grassroots relations with the public at large he stressed that Russia had already proposed seven alternative export routes.
"What’s the point for us (Russia and Belarus - TASS) in listening to all this and trying to present excuses? Let’s just tell them what the routes are. He (Russian President Vladimir Putin - TASS) in a recent interview mentioned the Belarusian route. We clinched a deal. I told him: ‘Listen, Mariupol is free. And Berdyansk is free. There are good ports on the Sea of Azov. I said: ‘Make an offer.’ And the Russians did make an offer. There are seven alternative routes for grain export to choose from. Go ahead. More than a month has passed - nobody is exporting anything," the BelTA news agency quotes Lukashenko as saying.
The Belarusian leader believes that the United States has been trying to set a number of countries against Russia and Belarus and to blow the Ukrainian grain issue out of proportion. "The Americans have failed to persuade the whole world to challenge Russia and Belarus. They are especially persistent in Latin America, Africa, and Asia in this respect. But nothing has worked. Then they thought they need something very emotional and touching to tug at the heartstrings. That’s why they raised the issue of hunger," he said. "They (the United States - TASS) want to mobilize all other countries by means of this global hunger threat, to make them toe the line and to crack down on Russia and on us, too. Also, they might try to expand this front-line - you know, at whose expense - and have the Middle East involved," Lukashenko added.