Lukashenko: Belarus will never become part of Russia

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that his country would never become part of Russia and the Russian authorities did not offer him that option directly.

“And today the Russian leadership has never directly raised the question that Belarus should be part of Russia. There were some, you know, hints in the past, to which I reacted very harshly,” Lukashenko said in an interview with Bloomberg.

According to the politician, Western sanctions against Belarus are an anachronism and are not capable of “even strangling small Belarus, not to mention Russia.”

According to Lukashenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin does not have “imperial ambitions,” as Western politicians and journalists often talk about.

“But if someone gets too carried away and nods a finger in the direction of Russia, and even waves a cudgel, then not only Putin, the Russians have such a mentality that Russia will respond to a cudgel,” he said.