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Lukashenka says that he conducted 2010 presidential election according to EU standards

Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed at a news conference on Friday that he had conducted last year's presidential election according to the European Union's standards.

While meeting with a group of Russian reporters in Minsk, Mr. Lukashenka said that European Union officials had asked the Belarusian authorities to grant registration to all presidential contenders. He revealed that his campaign team had collected 2.7 million ballot-access signatures. "I gave 600,000 of my signatures to them, so that the central election commission registers them. They registered everyone under my iron pressure," he said.

Mr. Lukashenka accused his rivals in the presidential campaign of calling for a violent coup in live television addresses to the voters. "Why did they do so? Because they knew that they would lose and they had to work off the money. And the West said that it would give them money for storms, riots, explosions, and so on. We knew that and Russia's secret services also knew for what purpose the money was given. And nevertheless, I made all of the concessions," he said.

According to Mr. Lukashenka, the foreign reporters and politicians who had been banned from Belarus were allowed to visit the country during the election. "We did everything what they demanded. I signed one decree after another, changing regulations ahead of the election. And what is the result today? Lukashenka is still a dictator and rogue," he said.

Mr. Lukashenka accused European politicians of being corrupt and applying double standards. "What kind of undemocratic regime is here compared with certain states with which they exchange hugs and from which they buy oil and gas?" he wondered.

Speaking about the reasons for Western pressure on his regime, he described Belarus as a "very attractive and strategically important piece of land." "For Russia it would probably be less painful to lose a piece of Russia than to lose Belarus," he said.

Mr. Lukashenka promised that he would never "flirt with the West to Russia's detriment." //BelaPAN