Belarus Will Never Be Russia's Ninetieth Province
The Belarus president was especially irked by the Russian proposal to build the Union on the principles of a federation
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Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday, June 19, used very biting words in reply to President Vladimir Putin's recent statement criticizing the Belarus stand on the principles of building bodies of power of the Russia-Belarus Union. Declared Lukashenko: "Belarus will never become the ninetieth province of the Russian Federation. (At the moment, the Russian Federation is made up of 89 autonomous republics, territories, and regions).
The difference of opinions between the presidents of Russia and Belarus on the principles of building a Union State have lately come to the surface more openly. At the end of last week, Vladimir Putin leveled sharp criticism at Minsk's demand to reserve the right of employing a veto on the adoption of decisions.
He also reminded Lukashenko that the Belarus economy amounted to a mere 3% of that of Russia.
In his statement on Wednesday, Lukashenko described the present situation as "…another attempt to drive a wedge between the two fraternal republics." And he also assumes that "…someone very high up in Russia needs this (squabble)." "It is the ordinary people, not the presidents that need the Union," the Belarus president added significantly.
In Lukashenko's opinion, the statements coming from Moscow indicate that, "the Russian side does not want to move in the direction of unifying the fraternal peoples of Belarus and Russia." The Belarus president was especially irked by the Russian proposal to build the Union on the principles of a federation. "In so doing, Belarus has been offered to become the ninetieth province of the Russian Federation," Lukashenko declared and especially emphasized: "We (Belarus) will not become any northwestern or northeastern periphery of any state. Belarus is an independent state with all the attributes of sovereignty."
Apparently in an effort to give more clout to the statements of their president, the speakers of both houses of the Belarus parliament, Alexander Voytovich and Vadim Popov cancelled their trip to St. Petersburg where they were to participate in the work of the Economic Forum. Meanwhile, some other prominent Belarus parliament members found a scapegoat in the person of Pavel Borodin, the State Secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union, and demanded his resignation.
