Belarusian President lashes out at Vladimir Putin over proposed Russia-Belarus union Tue Sep 17, 4:46 PM ET
MINSK, Belarus - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko lashed out at Russian President Vladimir Putin ( news - web sites) on Tuesday for changing the terms of the two countries' proposed union and threatened to charge Russia higher fees for use of its military facilities and transit routes.
Russia "doesn't want to fulfill the existing union agreement — to create a constitution, hold a referendum and create union government agencies," Lukashenko told reporters in a rambling press conference.
"If Russia wants to destroy the agreement, they can do it without us," he said.
Putin infuriated Lukashenko last month when he put forward two proposals for the long-discussed union with Belarus, neither of which appeared to offer Belarus much political clout.
One proposal would lead to unification under the Russian constitution in two years — essentially incorporating the much-smaller Belarus into its giant neighbor — if approved in a referendum. Another plan would produce closer cooperation but not integration. It would be similar to the European Union ( news - web sites), with a common currency introduced in 2004, two years earlier than planned.
Lukashenko has rejected both proposals and said he wants to continue working under a 1996 agreement signed with Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, that envisioned a more equal union of the two mostly Slavic and Orthodox Christian nations.
Putin, who is vacationing in Russia's Black Sea port of Sochi, reiterated Tuesday that Russia's constitution must be the basis for any future union with Belarus.
"Why should we disband the Russian Federation, wipe out our constitution and then start it all over again," Putin said in comments broadcast on Russian television.
"It will throw us back 10 years," he said.
Lukashenko said Russia enjoys free use of military facilities on Belarusian territory — including a radio locator station — and hinted that he had the right to charge Moscow for use of the sites. He also said Belarus could charge an additional dlrs 800 million to 1 billion in transit fees for Russian oil and gas that is transported across Belarusian territory to Europe.
The Belarusian leader, often dubbed "Europe's last dictator" for his autocratic ways, has become a pariah in the West for clamping down on the opposition and stifling free speech.
During Tuesday's press conference, he heaped criticism on the Organization for Security and Cooperation ( news - web sites) in Europe, which has criticized Belarus for human rights abuses, and denied that his government had forced several OSCE ( news - web sites) officials to leave the country.
"Their term of accreditation ended. And they left because their term ended," Lukashenko said.
The president also called Belarusian opposition leaders "sick people" and accused Western governments of giving opposition groups up to dlrs 300 million in recent years.
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