KAZAN, 23 October (BelTA) - Belarus has always wanted to have normal relations with the West, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with BBC journalist Steven Rosenberg on the margins of the BRICS summit in Russia’s Kazan on 23 October, BelTA has learned.
“I have always been in favor of good relations with the West,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.
He added that recent pardons of persons convicted of protest crimes had nothing to do with it. People were released for humanitarian reasons, the president said. “That is it. This is not a step to improve relations with you. If you do not want relations with us, that is fine. We can live without you,” the Belarusian leader said.
“I have never said that we were interested in worsening relations with the West. You have chosen this path, started to impose sanctions against us under certain pretexts,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
“Not for nothing,” the journalist said.
“A reason can be made up. What do you mean: not for nothing?” the president asked.
He mentioned that even his youngest son - actually a child - had fallen under the restrictions. “What is his fault? By the way, I asked these people from the West [during the recent negotiations] about it. They lowered their heads and said that it was madness,” the head of state said.
The West began to actively impose sanctions against Belarus after the aircraft, with Roman Protasevich on board, was grounded in Minsk. However, there is no evidence that Belarusian fighter jets intercepted the aircraft. “You are complete madmen. This aircraft was flying to Vilnius. Why didn't you land it in Vilnius? After all, it turned over and returned to Minsk. Where are the negotiations between the pilot and the air traffic controllers in Vilnius? These are your sanctions. You had a goal to put pressure on Lukashenko, and then you invented reasons,” the Belarusian leader stressed.
The president also pointed out that even if the Belarusian authorities, as the West claims, had landed the plane, it could be called a great and filigree operation, because not a single point of international air law had been violated. “We were blackmailed. We were warned that there was a bomb on the plane. We put the facts on the table for you. We warned the about it. The pilot was to choose whether to land in Vilnius or in Minsk. He chose Minsk. I have nothing to do with it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
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