Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko believes his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will not try to prolong his presidential powers in any way, including Belarus’ hypothetical unification with Russia, the news agency BelTA quotes Lukashenko as saying at a meeting with Ukrainian media on Thursday.
"Will you please brush away this suspicion, all this gossip that Putin in 2024 would like to prolong his presidential powers at the expense of Belarus. It’s naive. It’s not for big politics," Lukashenko said.
In mass media, he said, tongues may go on wagging nonstop. "But this is not for Putin, let alone for me, because the prospects and the future existence of Belarus as a state is on the agenda," Lukashenko said.
"There is no idea of merging the two countries, thus prolonging somebody’s powers […] It will look like a cheap trick to try to unite Belarus and Russia and this way to prolong powers," Lukashenko said. "Russia is an enormous, strong and rich country. If the question arises of prolonging the powers of one person, […] listen, they would devise a dozen ways of doing this. What I know for sure is something different: President Putin does not have an aim of preserving himself at the helm at any cost."