MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. There has been direct and indirect outside interference in the affairs of Belarus, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"I will not specify these forces, these countries. We state that there is indirect and even direct interference, and we are concerned because of that," he said. "We say once again: we are certain that problems in Belarus must be solved by Belarusians themselves through dialogue and within the legal framework," he stressed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko discuss foreign meddling in the domestic affairs of Belarus, the Kremlin spokesman went on to say. "The two countries’ presidents are constantly in touch with each other, they often talk over the phone, exchange views. No more than that for now though," he noted.

Peskov insisted that dialogue between Russia or other countries and the Belarusian opposition would be interference in Belarus’s domestic affairs. "We believe that first of all there should be inter-Belarusian dialogue because if foreign countries, including Russia, start dialogue with the opposition, this would be meddling in domestic affairs," Peskov said.

The Kremlin spokesman stressed that Russia was not going to interfere in the situation concerning the issue of holding a new presidential election in the neighboring country. "As you know, President [Vladimir] Putin congratulated [Belarusian leader Alexander] Lukashenko on winning the election," Peskov noted.

The Russian presidential spokesman was also asked to shed light on how many phone conversations Putin and Lukashenko had in the past days. Belarus earlier reported that there were four such conversations, while Russia said there were three of them. "We just did not report [about one phone conversation between the leaders] because there was nothing principally new there but yes, there were four conversations lately," Peskov said.