OREANDA-NEWS. Sergey Dylevsky, a member of the Coordinating Council for Power Transfer of Belarusian opposition claimed that the country needs to maintain friendly relations with Russia.

According to the politician, some residents of Belarus have “some fears that Russia may invade the country.” “And I also think that joining Russia would be bad, since we should be a sovereign state,” Dylevsky told reporters of the news agency RIA Novosti.

At the same time, he added that Minsk “has 75–80 % of economic ties with Russia, and an attempt to cut it off is like cutting own leg with a knife.” Therefore, Belarus needs to maintain friendship with Moscow, he resumed.

The opposition leader also called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a very strong leader” and said that he respects him as a politician.

Earlier, it became known that Dylevsky, who is also the head of the strike committee of the Minsk Tractor Works, has been released from the investigatory isolation ward of the city of Zhodzina.