There is no need to use Russian forces in Belorussia yet, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Sergey Brilyov, the host of VGTRK.
Minsk also agrees with this, he added.
In the opinion of the Russian leader, the situation in the republic is leveling off, and the law enforcers behave quite discreetly. He also noted that Moscow reacts to what is happening more neutrally than Europeans and Americans.
"Alexander Grigorievich (Lukashenko - ed.) asked me to form a certain reserve of law enforcement officers. And I did it. But we also agreed that it would not be used until the situation got out of control," the head of state said.
"It (the reserve of law enforcement officers) will not be used until the situation gets out of control and when the extremist elements, I want to emphasize this.... will not be used until the extremist elements, under the guise of political slogans, cross certain borders, just start robbing, start setting fire to cars, houses, banks, try to seize administrative buildings and so on," Putin said on Russia 1.
Putin reminded that Russia has obligations to Belarus in the security sphere.
"There is no need to hide anything, there are relevant articles that say that all member states of these organizations, including the Union State, and there are only two member states - Russia and Belarus - should help each other in protecting sovereignty, external borders and stability. It says so there," he said.
According to the President, Moscow guarantees Minsk to fulfill its obligations if necessary. Russia, Putin added, will proceed from the assumption that all problems in Belarus will be solved peacefully.
"If we are to be objective, I think that the law enforcement agencies (of the republics - ed.) are behaving quite discreetly, despite everything," he said.
The head of the state also reminded that Lukashenko agreed to meet with the society.
"He also said that he was ready to consider the possibility of constitutional reform, adoption of a new Constitution, new elections of both Parliament and the presidential elections on the basis of this new Constitution, but it is impossible to go beyond the limits of the current Constitution," he emphasized.
The head of the state noted that Russia was not indifferent to what was happening in the republic.
"It is very close, maybe the closest country to us. It is ethnically the closest to us, linguistically, culturally, spiritually, in any way. We have dozens, maybe hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of direct relatives," he said.
The elections of the head of state were held in the republic on August 9. According to the CEC, Alexander Lukashenko gained 80.1%, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya took second place with 10.12%. The opposition did not recognize these results; mass protests have begun in the country and are still going on; Tikhanovskaya left to Lithuania.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from RIA Novosti