Contents tagged with Belarus

  • Belarusian President Lukashenko threatens to break off alliance with Russia

    Russia risks losing its “sole ally” in the west, Belarus, if it refuses to compensate Minsk for the losses arising from a Russian tax maneuver in the oil sector, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told Interfax in an interview. 

    According to Lukashenko, if the monetary dispute with Russia’s leaders is not resolved, it will not be a catastrophe for Belarus. 

    The amount in question is in the region of $400 million per year, the amount that the Belarusian budget earns from the fact that …

  • Ukrainian Security Service expels Belarusian citizen for anti-Ukrainian propaganda

    The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) expelled a Belarusian citizen, Pavel Karnazytsky and banned him from entering Ukraine for three years. Karnazytsky had often taken part in TV programs on different Channels and positioned himself as a political observer, reported the SBU’s website. 

    "The SBU blocked the destructive activity of the Belarusian citizen Pavel Karnazytsky who disseminated anti-Ukrainian propaganda in the territory of our country. Operatives found out that the foreign national, …

  • President of Belarus Lukashenko congratulates Putin on the successful union of the two nations

    In his New Year’s greeting to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that the union between the two nations has been successful, the press service of the Belarusian leader reported. 

    Lukashenko noted that in the upcoming year, the two countries will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of signing the agreement on establishing the State Union. According to him, Belarus and Russia have had an uneasy path “but we can now say with confidence that the …

  • Kremlin creates committee to oversee integration of Russia and Belarus

    Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree to establish a working group on the integration of Russia and Belarus, RIA Novosti reports.

     Medvedev also announced that Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin would chair the group.

    “Oreshkin will be the head of the group. It will include representatives of all the agencies, not only the government one but also from the State Duma, the Federation Council, and the Chamber of Accounts,” said Medvedev on Friday, December 28th. …

  • Kremlin: Russian government lost trust in Belarus 

    Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the Russian Federation has lost trust in Belarus. 

    According to him, this is due to the fact that Belarus has been violating the Russian-Belarusian customs regime, including the import of sanctioned and excisable goods into the Russian Federation. 

    “We keep telling Belarus that they are our neighbor, our ally, but we have recently lost trust in Belarus. All those solvents, sanctioned products that come to us, excisable goods, cigarettes that …

  • Putin invites Lukashenko to lunch for a private chat

    Vladimir Putin has invited Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who arrived recently in Moscow, to a meal without any delegations from the two countries, TASS reports. 

    “I propose this arrangement: we will listen to how our colleagues have been working, and then we will give the delegations another opportunity to talk, and then I want to invite you separately to a New Year’s work lunch,” Putin said. 

    When speaking about how Russia-Belarus relations have been developing in recent times, …

  • President of Belarus Lukashenko no longer calls Russia a brother state 

    During a meeting on the current state of cooperation with Russia, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that he will not call Russia a brother state, because relations between the countries have started to be perceived differently. 

    “I no longer talk about a brother state, because, as I am informed, this is not perceived in Russia. Apparently new people have come, to whom this concept is unacceptable. So, we will be partners,” Lukashenko said, as cited by the official Belarusian …

  • Media: Lukashenko held a secret meeting to discuss 'Russian pressure' on the independence of Belarus

    President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko held a secret meeting with high-ranking officials. The participants of the meeting discussed what measures should be taken “under the conditions of pressure from the Russian side”, reported the Nasha Niva newspaper.

    “There was a big meeting with the president. The participants decided to stand for independence till the end. Everybody supported this decision,” the source of the newspaper said.

    According to the interlocutor of the newspaper, some …

  • Lukashenko suspects that Kremlin is trying to incorporate Belarus into Russia

    At a press conference with reporters in Minsk, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that it is important for him to maintain independence from other countries, BelTA reported.

    Lukashenko noted that there are no absolutely independent states in the world. Russia itself, according to Lukashenko, is rather sovereign than independent.

    “If they want to divide us into regions and incorporate into Russia, as the LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky suggested, it will never happen. And if the …

  • President of Belarus says Ukraine rejected his help in ending the war in the Donbas

    President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Ukraine rejected his initiatives to help end the war in the Donbas.

     “Given that Russian and Ukrainian people are good with me, I was ready to stand on that border as a border guard and to arrange an election compliant with the Minsk Agreement. […] But guess what? The ones who need to stop this war, primarily Poroshenko and the Ukrainians, rejected the offer. They explained their attitude by saying that Lukashenko is pro-Russian,” Lukashenko …