MINSK. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says he believes that rumors about "plans of absorption of Belarus by Russia before 2030" are aimed at destroying relations between Minsk and Moscow.
"They simply want to cut us in half once again. This is why this matter has emerged. There's nothing alive in it. You know my position, it cannot change, we are an independent sovereign state," the BelTA state-run news agency cited Lukashenko as saying at the Raubichi winter Olympic sports training center outside Minsk on Saturday.
"The president of Russia understands all these matters in the same way," he said.
"Do we have our own strategy? We do. Does Russia, a large nuclear power, have its own strategy? It does. Russia also has its own strategy in relation to Belarus, among others, it's living as brothers in peace and friendship. I am hundred percent sure. I fully live and breathe it, I am involved in it," Lukashenko said.