Lukashenko Accuses Poland of Planning to Overthrow Him
Alexander Lukashenko (nationalturk.com)
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has accused on Thursday the neighboring Poland of wishing to overthrow him in order to recarve the eastern border. Lukashenko made these allegations in front of the parliament and said that Poland wishes to move the eastern border 250 km closer to Minsk, the capital of the country.
Lukashenko said that “some people see a border near Minsk in their dreams,” referring to a border before the World War II.
When asked to comment on Belarusian president’s allegation, the spokesman for the Polish Foreign Ministry Marcin Bosacki said that he did not want to respond to this type of provocations.
Border Poland-Belarus (commons.wikimedia.org)
Lukashenko had previously accused Poland and Germany of trying to overthrow him but both countries refused to react to such allegations.
The border dispute was created by the Soviet Union, which returned a little piece of territory to Poland while keeping the larger part under Belarusian jurisdiction.
Belarus proclaimed its independence in 1991, and since 1994 it has been under the autocratic rule of Lukashenko, who managed recently, in December, to gain another term in office, though many voices accused him of rigging elections and suffered crackdown on them.
Some 700 people were detained by police in the aftermath of serious protests in the capital of the country.
Lukashenko played the part of thawing relations with European Union during campaign in order to balance the powers between EU and Russia.
After the elections, he told the European Union: “Don’t try to scare us.”11
