World Bulletin / News Desk

The President of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, called on his country to learn from the mistakes of neighboring countries in his national address from Minsk.

Referring to neighbor Ukraine, he claimed that the country had fallen into crisis because of corruption and a weak economy.

"A new era is about to start and no one knows how it will turn out," he said, promising to stamp out corruption in Belarus.

Lukashenka, who had upheld a pro-Russian stance regarding the dispute between Moscow and the West regarding the Ukraine crisis, also vowed to maintain Russian as an official state language.

"If we lose the Russian language, we will lose our minds," he said.

Belarus along with Kazakhstan have joined the Russian-led Customs Union, which looks likely to lead to a Eurasian union attracting more and more former Soviet states to rival the European Union.

Armenia is set to also join the Customs Union in May or June, while Kyrgyzstan has also expressed interest.