Lukashenko considers Moscow's proposals concerning Union State unacceptable

President Alexander Lukashenko considers the Russian leadership's proposals concerning the Union State "absolutely unacceptable." President Lukashenko said at a meeting with head of Daghestan Magomedali Magomedov in Minsk that there were many problems on the way of building the Union state.

The proposals made by the Russian leadership are "absolutely unacceptable and are even insulting," said Lukashenko. He said that "even Lenin and Stalin did not go so far as splitting up Belarus" and make it a part of Russia or the USSR.

At a recent meeting with Lukashenko in Moscow President Vladimir Putin of Russia proposed to build the Union as a full-fledged single state based on principles of the equality of the constituent members of Belarus and the Russian Federation and to create single bodies of power in keeping with the constitution of Russia.

Nobody will agree to cut the republic into parts and include one or another region into Russia, said Lukashenko. He also turned down the idea of a union patterned on the European Union.

According to Lukashenko, Moscow's aim is "to prevent the Union of Belarus and Russia." At the same time, noted Lukashenko, there have never been, nor will there ever be any obstacles on the part of Belarus in the way to build an equitable and friendly Union." Lukashenko believes that the integration of the two countries can be continued on the basis of the treaty on the creation of the Union state. "The Treaty, which is dear not only to me, but also to Russia's former leadership, cannot be destroyed," said Lukashenko.

Lukashenko said that the Union should be made "attractive for all the former republics of the USSR who seek its membership, Ukraine, to say the least."