MINSK, January 29. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko thinks that the powers that be do not need an independent and self-sufficient Russia, which is why they try to "bend it to their will." He said this during a meeting with students on Friday, the BelTA news agency reported.

"We didn’t get on our knees, didn’t bend to anyone’s will, that’s why they are trying to subdue us. Exactly like now when they began to subdue Russia. Nobody needs such an independent, self-sufficient Russia," he said. "The powers that be need Russia the way it was with Yeltsin in the mid-nineties," he added.

According to the Belarusian president, American intelligence actively and openly operated in Russia then, directing all processes. "They started the privatization, they started the elimination of armaments of the Soviet Union," he said. "In Belarus, this process also gained steam but I quickly suppressed it. And not because I am a dictator and an authoritarian leader but because, first and foremost, I refused to get rid of armaments," he explained.

On January 28, the Belarusian leader said that neither Americans, nor the EU, nor domestic liberals will ever forgive Russian President Vladimir Putin for "stopping wars in Russia and pulling Russia together."