VILNIUS, Lithuania — Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said Wednesday that he was not about to change his authoritarian ways just to gain favor with Europe, stressing that his country would remain a strategic ally of Russia.
“Europeans must understand they can’t make us to do something that we do not want,” he told an economic forum in Vilnius. “We know what are the best interests of our nation.”
Lukashenko made a rare visit to neighboring Lithuania — his first in 11 years — and the second trip to a European Union and NATO member since an EU travel ban on top Belarussian officials was lifted earlier this year.
Many Lithuanians were critical of the decision to invite Lukashenko. A dozen protesters jeered him near the presidential palace by waving signs and calling for an end to political repression in Belarus.
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