MINSK. June 27 (Interfax) - The attempted mutiny in Russia made the Belarusian leadership worry, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said.
"Indeed, the disturbance in Russia has strained us a lot," Lukashenko said at a meeting with Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin in Minsk on Tuesday, as quoted by the Belarusian Defense Ministry's press service.
"Your military reacted quite well. All servicemen. Both the police and the border guards. Their reaction was prompt, and they were alerted by noon. This is our job, this is how it should be," Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko said earlier on Tuesday that he had ordered putting the Belarusian Armed Forces on red alert.
He added that people in Belarus took the attempted mutiny in Russia close to heart. "I won't hide it that it was painful to observe the events unfolding in southern Russia. Not only for me. Lots of our citizens took them to heart. Because we have one homeland," Lukashenko said in Minsk on Tuesday at a ceremony of promoting servicemen to general officer rank.
"It's my opinion that we will all die if Russia collapses and we are buried in the ruins," he said.