MINSK, Belarus (AP) – Belarus’s authoritarian president pledged a close alliance with Russia even when he criticized the country on Tuesday for sending army contractors for supposedly destructive purposes while campaigning for a sixth term in weekend elections.
In a state of the nation they faced before Sunday’s elections, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the partnership between neighboring countries reflects historical ties.
“Russia has been and will continue to be our close ally, regardless of who takes the strength in Belarus or Russia,” Lukashenko said.
This contrasts with Lukashenko’s diatribes opposed to Russia following the arrest of 33 Russian marketers in Belarus last week for making plans for mass unrest. Moscow rejected the accusations, saying that contractors were traveling to the country and remaining in Belarus after not having a connecting flight to Minsk airport.
While talking about maintaining warm relations with Moscow, Lukashenko kept the arrested contractors company, ignoring the Kremlin’s explanations as lies. He said the arrested had told investigators that they had been sent to Belarus and had been told to await additional orders.
He claimed that a “militants” organization had been sent to southern Belarus, adding that “we will have to run through the woods to catch them, but we will have them all.” It did not provide any additional details.
Lukashenko warned Moscow that he opposes any attempt to stoke tensions in the country he has ruled for 26 years, saying that instability could spread across the border and envelop Russia.
“It will explode in such a way that it will reverberate as Vladivostok,” he said, referring to the port city in eastern Russia.
In Moscow, the spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, downplayed Belarusian accusations as a “theatrical representation,” but added that close ties between the two nations are rooted in history and pragmatic cooperation.
During his five terms as president of Belarus, Lukashenko relied on reasonable Russian power and other multimillion-dollar subsidies and loans to the Soviet-style economy in the country of 9.5 million inhabitants. But at the same time, he became involved in fierce economic disputes with the Kremlin, resisting Russian attempts to take control of Belarus’s economic assets.
This year, Russia has drastically reduced its subsidies, saying That Belarus will have to settle for closer economic integration if it needs to obtain Russian power at a very advantageous price. Lukashenko described the resolution as a component of Moscow’s efforts to control its neighbor.
Lukashenko indirectly alluded to these arguments in his State of the Nation address, lamenting that “Russia has gone from being fraternal to a society with us.”
But he argued that Moscow needed to be warm with its western neighbor.
“Russia is afraid of wasting us because it no longer has genuine allies than we do,” he said. “And the West has shown a growing interest in us.”
Throughout his presidency, Lukashenko has tried to scare the Kremlin with the prospect of turning to the West. The tactic worked to some extent, Lukashenko earned the nickname “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his authoritarian manners.
The former 65-year-old state farm chief stifled dissent and independent media and prolonged his rule with votes rigged by the West.
Early voting began Tuesday in Belarus ahead of Sunday’s presidential election, which the opposition sees as a fertile floor for vote manipulation.
This time, the Belarusian leader faced the most complicated challenge to date by the opposition, amid public fatigue over his reign and the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, wife of a imprisoned opposing blogger, unified fragmented opposition teams and lured tens of thousands of people to their electoral rallies.
On Tuesday, Belarusian police in the past banned the Tsikhanouskaya demonstrations approved in the cities of Sloutsk and Soligorsk. They dispersed many other people who had accumulated for rallies and arrested about 30 others, according to the Belarusian human rights organization Viasna.
Police movements marked the first crackdown on a crusade rally sanctioned through Tsikhanouskaya and appear to sign a hardening of the government’s position in the days leading up to the election.
The Belarusian government has arrested more than 1,000 participants in demonstrations since the start of the presidential campaign.
In his speech, Lukashenko referred to the alleged plans to organize a “massacre” in Minsk – without giving the main points – and severely warned opposition supporters supporting unauthorized demonstrations.
“The reaction will be instantaneous and the consequences will be severe,” he said.
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Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.