MINSK, June 27. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin did everything that was asked of him to help Belarus.

"It was agreed that we will pay in Russian rubles for their [Russian] gas and oil, meaning we work with rubles and don’t have to search for dollars somewhere, to exchange. Basically, many concessions. It wasn’t easy. But I should do justice to President Putin: he did all that I asked for," Lukashenko was quoted as saying by the BelTA news agency.

The Belarusian authorities cannot be ungrateful, the president noted. "Without Russia it would be game over for us in this difficult environment. Now, you only have to produce. Gomselmash did not know what to do. Now there is a queue of Kazakhs and Russians. The Deputy Prime Minister is already saying: ‘We hardly manage to produce harvesters in time’. Tractors, machine building," he said.

The machine tool industry is not on par with America, but it’s at a solid level, Lukashenko stressed. "Tools, tools - willingly. Russia is ready to buy everything and it pays cash," he said.

The Belarusian leader also noted that Minsk is tied to Russia on issues of common security, including deployment of nuclear weapons in the country.