Denying Assessment Of British And Dutch PMs, Belarusian President: If The Soviet Union Had Not Collapsed, Conflicts In The World Could Have Been Avoided

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko observe the military exercises of the two countries. (Source: Kremlin/ru)

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin is healthy, sane and in better shape than ever, saying world conflicts could have been avoided if the Soviet Union had existed, a close ally of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview with Japanese television channel TBS.

"He and I not only met as heads of state, we were friends," Lukashenko said in a recorded interview shared by state news agency BelTA.

"I am absolutely privy to all the details, as far as possible, both state and private," said President Lukashenko.

Russia used Belarusian territory as a staging post for its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

While Western leaders have accused President Putin of making a costly miscalculation by launching a military offensive into Ukraine, where Russian troops have suffered heavy losses, their advance has largely stalled despite their apparent superiority.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has judged President Putin to be irrational, while Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has described him as 'totally paranoid'.

However, President Lukashenko dismissed the notion that Putin, who is 69 years old, has not lost power.

"The West, and you, have to get this stupidity, this fiction out of your head," he told the interviewer.

"Putin is really fit, he's in better shape than before. This is a completely sane person, healthy, physically fit, he's an athlete," he said.

At the same time, President Lukashenko also lamented the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The theme is one that President Putin frequently discussed, at least when he suggested in his pre-invasion speech, that it was an artificial construction and an inalienable part of history and Russian culture.

"The collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy. If the Soviet Union had survived to this day, we could have avoided all kinds of conflicts in the world," said President Lukashenko.

"While the Soviet Union existed, the world was multipolar and one pole balanced the other. Now the reason for what is happening in the world is unipolarity, the monopoly of our planet by the United States," he said.