MINSK, August 28. /TASS/. Belarus may become a "theater of war," which the West will try to use against Russia, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday , adding that he shares this opinion with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
"You heard the statement of our neighbor and my good friend yesterday," Lukashenko said during his meeting with workers in the Vitebsk Region. "This is not about Russians wanting to protect Belarus. Listen, we can protect ourselves alright. By the Russian President and I, we understand what might happen, should we miss it."
In this case, Lukashenko said, Belarus may turn into a theatre of war, "where other people’s issues will be resolved."
"They [the West] don’t need Belarus," he said. "Belarus is a trampoline to Russia, as usual."\
On August 22, Lukashenko noted that he shares an opinion with Vladimir Putin that the situation in Belarus could be used "to lunge at Russia later."
On Thursday, Putin said in his interview for Rossiya-24 TV channel that the situation in Belarus might be influenced from abroad. He noted that people who blame Lukashenko for his actions after the presidential elections refrain from commenting on actions of the protesters.
"This suggests that it is not about what is happening in Belarus, but about someone wanting something else to happen there," the President said. "They want to influence these processes and achieve decisions that conform to their political interests."
Putin disclosed that Russia created a "certain reserve of law enforcement employees" on Belarus’s request.
"But we have also agreed that this reserve will not be used until the situation gets out of control," until "the extremist elements, using political slogans as their cover, trespass certain limits and resort to outright banditry, start burning houses, banks, try to capture administrative building and so on," Putin said.