Belarus will not become part of Russia — president

MINSK, April 2. /TASS/. Belarus will not become part of Russia, and the Russian leadership has never put the question like that, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told Bloomberg on Thursday.

"The Russian leadership has never put the question directly like this that Belarus should be part of Russia," Lukashenko said. "We were and we are a sovereign independent state. And we will stay this way," he noted.

There are many politicians in Russia "who have imperial ambitions" and want to see Belarus as "some kind of [Russia’s] north-western region," Lukashenko said. "We have a specific answer to that - we will never be a north-western region. And we will never have a conflict with Russia, as far as I understand," he added.

The Russian leadership has absolutely no reasons to be discontent with Belarus as "Russian people will not understand this," the Belarusian president stressed. "What is the point of fighting against us? There are no reasons for that. That’s why I don’t think Russia will ever fight against Belarus," Lukashenko said.

Accusations of interference into internal affairs of neighboring countries should be addressed, in particular, to the US and European Union, he noted. "What did they [US, EU] want in Libya, in Iraq, in other parts [of the world]? They have vital interests there," the president stressed.

Lukashenko also noted that the Ukrainian crisis did not change the relations between Russia and Belarus.