Why did Lukashenko delivered his speech in Belorussian?

The Lithuania Tribune spoke to Dzianis Melyantsou, senior analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies at the Riga Conference 2014. We asked Mr Melyantsou what should we make of the fact that President Lukashenko delivered a public speech in Belarusian rather than Russian. "The main message was sent to President Putin that Belarus was not Russia," Mr Melyantsou believes.