"Personally, President Lukashenko has never once announced the recognition of, say, Crimea as part of the Russian Federation, not to mention the recognition of new subjects of Russia.

The president of Syria talks about this, but the president of fraternal Belarus does not," noted Zatulin.

"At the same time, it is clear to everyone that after the 2020 elections, Alexander Lukashenko relies only on the support of Russia.

He is again called the last dictator of Europe.

However, now Putin is an even more odious person for mass media in the West," added the politician.

On November 30, 2021, in an interview with the international news agency "Russia Today", Lukashenko stated that de facto Crimea is "Russian Crimea", and after the 2014 referendum "de jure Crimea became Russian".

Zatulin said at the time that he was "necessary to be calm" about this statement.

"Recognitions of Belarus are definitely connected with the current situation - the attitude of the West towards Belarus and the same Ukraine.

It is rather their merit that Belarus has declared the recognition of Crimea in such a way... Now the hopes of establishing relations with the West are far from materializing, further than if there were none.

That is why Lukashenka is making these statements," he said.