Russian President Vladimir Putin has encountered resistance from Belarus as he pushes to establish an air base there, which would mark the first complete Russian military base in the country since the Cold War.
After protesters gathered at an opposition rally in Minsk this weekend to oppose Putin’s plan to build the base, President Alexander Lukashenko said that the country does not need the Russian air base and claimed that Moscow had not discussed it with him, BBC reported.
"We don’t need a base today," Lukashenko said Tuesday, according to Belarusian media outlets. "I hear shrieks from the opposition about the deployment of a Russian air base. I don’t know anything about it."
"We need planes—not bases. We have our excellent pilots. ... Why should I allow in planes and pilots from other countries?" the president added.
Approximately 1,000 protesters demonstrated against Putin’s plan to build the air base in Minsk on Sunday. Putin announced in September his support of a government proposal for the military base and directed his officials to begin talks about it with Belarus, which is an ally of Russia.
Russia’s idea for the air base has been in the works for years. Putin’s government has not been clear on the purpose of the base, but it would increase Moscow’s ability to interfere in Ukraine.
"It’s clear that the military base aims against Kiev," opposition leader Mikalai Statkevich said at the Minsk protest Sunday. "We do not want the threat to fraternal people to arise from our land, even if it originates from another [of] our fraternal peoples."