Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has put his personal financial interests ahead of the interests of Belarus and the Russian-Belarusian union, Russian political analyst Mikhail Aleksandrov told Armenian News- NEWS.am.

As per Aleksandrov, Lukashenko has acted unbecoming of an ally.

“Lukashenko knew very well that we [, Russia,] imposed sanctions against the West in response to their sanctions against us. [And] instead of supporting us, he began smuggling goods from the West to Russia, wishing to become rich in this way,” he noted. 

The analyst added that when all this was exposed and Russia warned that it will not tolerate this kind of thing, he continued to do this, anyway. 

As per Aleksandrov, Lukashenko needs to understand that he is not Belarus.

“Lukashenko retains power [in Belarus] solely with Russia’s assistance,” the political scientist said.  

He noted that it is difficult to work with the Belarus president.

“I even think that Armenia would be a better partner [for Russia] than the Lukashenko-led Belarus,” Mikhail Aleksandrov concluded.