“Yeltsin hoped that Putin would run to him all the time to consult on this or that issue, but this is impossible and unacceptable, and this is not for Putin ... And this is the first reason, maybe not quite the first, which formed between them crack, ”Lukashenka said.

According to him, in particular, Yeltsin was unhappy that Russia refused to maintain Russian military bases in Cuba and Vietnam.

“This was the first time when I noticed that he just started to freak out,” the Belarusian president said.

He was also asked to answer the question why Yeltsin could choose Putin as his successor and whether he later regretted this decision.

“I would not want to meddle in their relationship. And the fact that he lamented and regretted, so I often visited him. This was very often, I tried to calm him down. You have to understand, because Yeltsin was such a power-hungry person, and Putin is not a gift either, ”Lukashenka said.

In November, Valentin Yumashev, a presidential adviser and former Kremlin chief of staff, explained why Yeltsin chose Putin as his successor.