Zhirinovsky: Lukashenka is trying to sit on the fence

Belarus will only get cheap gas if it decides to become part of Russia, infamous Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky said. “We will either stick to relations on the market terms or you will enter Russia and get low prices [for natural gas],” he wrote on Telegram.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka is trying to find another way out, Zhirinovsky reckons. “Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenka] is trying to sit on the fence,” he wrote. “He wants to preserve the sovereignty and to get cheap Russian gas to make money on resale. This won’t do!”

Moscow will not agree to Lukashenka’s suggestions, the Russian politician believes. If a referendum were conducted in Belarus, ‘the overwhelming majority’ would vote for joining Russia, he claimed. To justify his forecast, Zhirinovsky referred to the results of the referendum conducted in 1990 when 82% of Belarusians wanted to preserve the USSR.

Vladimir Zhironovsky often expresses the position of the Russian authorities that they cannot voice in public for some reason. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has recently suggested that Belarus should switch to the Russian rouble. Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin will meet in Moscow on December 25. They are going to discuss ‘cheap gas’, ‘the tax maneuver’ and ‘further integration.’