Belarus would get a lot of intl drubbing if it recognized Abkhazia, S. Ossetia - president
MINSK. Oct 11 (Interfax) - Belarus won't recognize Abkhazia or South Ossetia as independent states any time soon, according to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who argued that Belarus' recognition of the two republics would anger Georgia and the West.
"Do we need it today? Even from the point of view of Russia, would it be useful? If we recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgia will get agitated, and so will other countries where there exist territorial claims, and the West will go bonkers. We would find ourselves being a catalyst of such claims," Lukashenko told news conference in Minsk on Friday.
He mentioned a discussion on the issue he had in 2008 with then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
"I know what would have happened to Belarus because of recognizing [Abkhazia and South Ossetia]. The political squabbles would have been of little use to Russia but would have sunk us so low that there would have had no opportunities whatsoever," Lukashenko said.
"If, at least, Russia had partially taken over some of those risks - it would actually have had to take over not some but all of those risks, - I would have signed such a decree. But I didn't get any such response," he said.