MINSK, 14 January (BelTA) - Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko compared the events in Belarus in 2020 and the recent ones in Kazakhstan and named the main reason for what happened as he spoke at a reception to mark the Old New Year in Minsk on 14 January, BelTA has learned.
"Behind all these events are some states. In August 2020, these states (you know them and their proxies) acted here, in Belarus. The chaos was created by their special services. We knew them. They didn't hide. But here they failed here and they made a conclusion," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
According to him, the main conclusion that the collective West made was to hide its interests and to keep under radar in the future. "It was the special services that worked in Kazakhstan, and they [the interested states] didn't expose themselves. They worked hush hush. To organize such large-scale events in such a big country as Kazakhstan in a day? It just does not work that way," the Belarusian leader said.
In addition, large transnational companies have their interests in Kazakhstan. "Therefore, the command was given not to hurry, to act quietly. When dust settles they would have come forward (I am quoting a report of our intelligence in the first days of events),” the president noted. “Kazakhstan and Belarus are focal points. We are in Europe, and they in Central Asia," the head of state explained.
"Kazakhstan could have been used to spread chaos onto Russia. They could use it to offset the USA's Afghanistan fiasco and to influence not only China but also the entire Asia. Therefore, the stakes were high," the president continued.
Taking into account all this information, the leaders of the CSTO countries decided to send peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan. "We decided to intervene. In the first conversation with Putin [a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin] I told him that ‘once we land there the situation will change'. That was what happened. That was the main thing for us," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
Speaking about the differences between the events in the two countries, Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that, by and large, there are not any: "Everything was the same. It was just that they kept under the radar." In this regard, the president stressed that it is important to remain vigilant, to keep the situation under: "We cannot let our guards down."
