Putin: Russia stands ready to offer security help to Belarus

MINSK, Belarus: Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that he stands ready to send police to Belarus if protests there turn violent, but added in an interview broadcast Thursday that there is no such need now and voiced hope that the situation in the neighboring country will stabilise, foreign media reported.

Belarus’ authoritarian president of 26 years, Alexander Lukashenko, is facing weeks of protests against his reelection to a sixth term in the Aug. 9 vote, which the opposition says was rigged.

Putin told Russia’s state television that Lukashenko has asked him to prepare a Russian law enforcement contingent to deploy to Belarus if necessary.Putin said that he and Lukashenko have agreed that “there is no such need now, and I hope there won’t be.”

“We have agreed not to use it until the situation starts spinning out of control and extremist elements acting under the cover of political slogans cross certain borders and engage in banditry and start burning cars, houses and banks or take over administrative buildings,” he said.

The Coordination Council, created by the Belarusian opposition to facilitate a peaceful transition of power, criticized Putin’s statement, saying it’s “inadmissible” for any country to form armed units for use on the territory of Belarus.

“This contradicts international law and consolidated position of Belarusian society,” it said in a statement.In an apparent jab at the West, which has condemned Lukashenko’s crackdown on protesters and urged him to launch a dialogue with the opposition, Putin accused unidentified foreign forces of trying to win political advantages from the turmoil in Belarus.

“They want to influence those processes and reach certain decisions, which they think conform with their political interests,” Putin said.Russia sees the neighbor as a key bulwark against Western expansion and an important conduit for Russian energy exports. The two countries have a union agreement envisaging close political, economic and military ties, and Lukashenko has relied on cheap Russian energy and other subsidies to keep Belarus’ Soviet-style economy afloat.

Despite the close cooperation, Russia-Belarus relations have often been strained by disputes. Lukashenko frequently played overtures to the West and accused Moscow of hatching plans to incorporate Belarus.

Just before the election, Belarus arrested 32 private Russian military contractors on charges of planning to stage riots. Belarusian authorities released the men shortly after the vote in a bid to mend ties with the Kremlin amid rising Western criticism.