8 July 2025

'No one is driving anyone anywhere’. What Lukashenko said about Eurasian integration 14 years ago

When speaking about the Eurasian integration in 2011, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “We are not sacrificing our sovereignty.” The Common Economic Space of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan was launched on 1 January 2012. In a new episode of BelTA’s YouTube project “How It Was”, we recall the most significant events of 2012.

Aleksandr Lukashenko pursued the policy towards an alliance with Russia since the first days of his presidency. But the Belarusian leader paid no less attention to integration processes throughout the Eurasian space. Not everyone was happy, though. Hillary Clinton, who served as U.S. Secretary of State in 2012, called the integration process “the re-Sovietization of the region.” The West did not want the rapprochement of the former Soviet republics.

The president spoke about this quite clearly and urged no to make excuses to anyone.

“Attempts to disrupt this process are ongoing. It's clear who is behind them. But we put all this aside and clearly stated that we are not sacrificing our sovereignty, and no one is driving anyone anywhere," Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “I think that Russia is making too many excuses for nothing, apologizing for its initiatives. We're doing this because it's beneficial for all the three countries.”

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