| President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said yesterday to the Qatari TV channel Al Jazeera about his readiness to continue building an alliance with Moscow: “We are not the root cause of what happened in relations with the Russian Federation. If they want to build an alliance with us on an equal, friendly, fraternal basis, we are ready for this.” “Whatever relations we have with the Russian leadership today, we will not betray the Russians,” the president is confident. “And in the West they must understand that our friendship with the Russians is above all.” At the same time, Mr. Lukashenko does not give up the idea of improving relations with the EU: “We need to stop looking at each other “over the fence.” We are pleased with economic cooperation with Europe and are ready to conduct political dialogue to expand economic cooperation.” He also proposed a dialogue with Washington, if the United States does not put forward “absurd conditions.” Lukashenko called the deployment of elements of the American missile defense system near the borders of Belarus “just the beginning” of building up NATO’s military potential in the eastern direction. Olga TOMASHEVSKAYA, Minsk
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