On November 25, Minsk /BelTA correspondent/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko does not believe that the Russian leadership still harbours 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 do not think that the Russian leadership still stubbornly adheres to these goals," the President told the journalist of the French publication. Alexander Lukashenko stressed 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 emphasised. "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 interests on our land. But we always ask and demand from our partners to take into account our interests, those of the Belarusian people, and to understand that people live here and a state exists." As for the reasons for the failed meeting between the President of Belarus and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, during his visit to Minsk, Alexander Lukashenko noted that "we did not plan this meeting". -0-

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