A. Lukashenka does not believe that the Russian leadership still has plans to incorporate Belarus into Russia

November 25, Minsk /Corr. BELTA/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko does not believe that the Russian leadership still harbors plans to incorporate Belarus into Russia. He expressed this opinion today in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, according to a BELTA correspondent. "That the Russian leadership would like to incorporate Belarus into Russia, you probably know this well, you have heard it. But I don't think that the Russian leadership is still so stupidly clinging to these goals," the President told a journalist from the French publication. Alexander Lukashenko emphasized that the relations between Belarus and Russia "are as they were, and remain so." "There is no sharp deterioration in relations, because neither Russia nor we need it," the head of state noted. At the same time, he added that Russia has military-political, strategic interests in Belarus. "But Russia makes the same mistakes as the European Union. We must take realities into account. We must take into account that there is a state and a people, the Belarusian state and the Belarusian people. And for any President, whoever is here, it is sacred to protect these interests," the President stressed. "The whole complexity is that we are located between these two huge monsters: the European Union and Russia. And each has its own interests on the territory of Belarus," the Belarusian leader said. "We agree that both you and Russia have your own interests on our land. But we always ask and demand from our partners that they take into account our interests, those of the Belarusian people, and understand that people live here and a state exists." As for the reasons for the canceled meeting between the President of Belarus and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his visit to Minsk, Alexander Lukashenko noted that "we did not plan this meeting." -0-