ENTEBBE /Uganda/, July 26. /TASS/. Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni said on Tuesday Uganda cannot be against Russia because the Russians have been supporting his country for the past 100 years.

"We appreciated them (the Bolsheviks) because they supported us, they supported our anti-colonial struggle. <…> Then in 1949, we were also lucky to have a new force - the communists taking over Сhina. And again they supported us, then we had some other socialist countries, Cuba and so on. Therefore, whenever issues come up and some people want us to take position against Russia, we say that these people have been with us for 100 years. How can we be automatically against them?" he told a news conference after talks with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

According to the Ugandan president, his country has forgiven those countries, which once colonized Africa and it cannot be against Russia, which has never done any harm to his nation. "We have even forgiven our former enemies, the ones who colonized us, the ones who took slaves from here, and we are working with them. How can we be against somebody who has never harmed us?" he added.

"Our interest with Russia is that when there is progress and stability in Russia we also benefit. Because they buy some things from us and we buy things from them. And we are going to cooperate in specific ways also, in space, in atomic energy. This is what we are looking for, win-win for everybody in the world and it is possible," he stressed.

In reply to a question whether anyone has asked him not to take photos with Lavrov, the Ugandan leader noted that no one can ask him such things as everybody knows his position. "People can’t be so stupid as to ask me that don’t take a picture with someone," he noted smilingly.