MINSK. March 18 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting in Minsk on Monday that he has spoken with Vladimir Putin by phone.
"I just had a conversation with the Russian president, congratulated him on the outcome of the presidential election in Russia. He asked me to convey his gratitude, primarily, to those present here and other persons who helped organize the Russian presidential election here - we had six polling stations," Lukashenko was quoted by his press service as saying.
"The elections passed in an organized manner like nowhere else. No matter how they tried to rock us here and from the West, there are very good results. The Russian embassy worked very well in touch with our officials. So I convey to you his gratitude for the work and organization of the Russian presidential election in Belarus," Lukashenko said.
He also said that the overwhelming majority of Russian voters cast their ballots for Putin, calling the election outcome stunning.
"Of course, the result is stunning. A total of 87.3% of the vote was cast for the incumbent president. The results are very serious, but the voter turnout was also high. There has never been such a voter turnout in the Russian Federation. Such results with a high voter turnout. To some extent, even unexpected. This was my position, I expressed it to him [Putin]," Lukashenko said.
The most important lesson drawn from the past elections is that it is impossible to impose someone else's will on the peoples of Russia and Belarus, he said. "If you try to do that, people will do the opposite, no matter how difficult it is. That is why the known forces failed to impose this will on the Russians. They are good, they rallied during this pre-election period and showed who the master in the house is," Lukashenko said.
He added that it was a serious message to the West, which was betting on rocking Russia from within. "It doesn't work out on the front, so it means rocking from within. It didn't work out either," Lukashenko said.