Lukashenko on wider threat of Belarus protests

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday, after warning that the ongoing protests against the results of the Aug. 9 presidential election were "not just a threat to Belarus".

Addressing at a meeting with security officials in Minsk, Lukashenko said "today, defending Belarus is no less important than defending this whole zone of our allies, to set an example for the rest."

His comments were made before he held a discussion with Putin, the first publicly known direct contact between the two leaders since the election.

A Kremlin statement said Putin and Lukashenko both expressed hope for a quick resolution of the tensions.

“It is important that these problems are not used by destructive forces aimed at causing injury to the cooperation of the two countries in the framework of the union state,” the Kremlin said.

Russia and Belarus reached an agreement in 1997 about closer ties between the neighboring ex-Soviet countries in a union stopping short of a full merger, although that has collided with recent disputes between the countries and Lukashenko's suspicions that Putin's government wants to absorb Belarus.

Despite harsh police action against the protesters, including the detention of some 7,000 people, the recent demonstrations have swelled into the largest and most sustained protest wave since Lukashenko took power in 1994.