emphasised hopes for the continued

Alexander Lukashenko received congratulations from several key allies, including China, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a diplomatically lukewarm congratulatory message, characterised by generic phrases that emphasised hopes for the continued strengthening of bilateral relations across all areas, as well as support for Belarus’s cooperation within Eurasian organisations and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), which links Belarus with Russia and several former Soviet states in matters of security and defence Russia feared losing Belarus in the same manner it lost Ukraine after the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014. In response to the reconciliation initiative proposed by the Belarusian president, Russia acted swiftly to mitigate the risk of the revolution taking a direction detrimental to its interests, as had occurred in Ukraine. สล็อต