Lukashenko Doesn't Want Lenin and Stalin Demonized

Comments come day after new sanctions were imposed by the EU

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has conceded he is still lagging far behind Joseph Stalin or Bolshevik Revolution leader Vladimir Lenin.

They should not be demonized, he stressed. "They were our leaders: Lenin created the state, while Stalin strengthened it," Lukashenko stated talking to Russian journalists on Tuesday.

He noted that his opinion about the two Communist leaders is different from that in Russian society.

"How will we be assessed in 50 years? If a trend similar to that in the West is supported, then I would be worse than Stalin: who walked the streets, caught people, ate them – particularly women," he noted ironically, as cited by Interfax.

Europeans do not criticize their own history, Lukashenko observed.