BELARUS PRESIDENT DENOUNCES NATO, CALLS FOR EASTERN ALLIANCE

BELARUS PRESIDENT DENOUNCES NATO, CALLS FOR EASTERN ALLIANCE

. On an official visit to Moldova September 11 and 12, Aleksandr Lukashenko to the obvious embarrassment of his hosts vehemently condemned NATO, deplored the disappearance of the USSR, and urged all former Soviet republics to join together in a political-military alliance which would resist Western influence in Eastern Europe and US influence in Europe as a whole. Lukashenko advised Moscow "not to fear accusations of imperialism" and to condition the CIS countries’ access to Russian energy and raw materials on those countries’ military coooperation with Russia. Evidently alluding to Poland’s possible accession to NATO he described as "totally unacceptable NATO’s extension to the border of Belarus." (14) Lukashenko’s remarks place him at the forefront of restorationist tendencies in the European republics of the former USSR. Yet even he has recently displayed a surprising ambivalence and even resentment over his republic’s formerly subordinate position vis-a-vis Russia.

Lukashenko Challenged at Home.