Contents tagged with Belarus
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Belarusian President Lukashenko once again refuses to deepen integration with Russia
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that he will not sign any of the documents on further integration with Russia if they contravene the Belarusian constitution, BelTA reports.
“Not a single one of the documents will be signed if they contravene the constitution and fundamental principles of life of our society. And the most important principles are independence and sovereignty,” he said.
According to Lukashenko, Belarus and Russia can sign no roadmaps until they have dealt with …
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Belarus fully renounces Russian loans
For the first time in the many years that the Union State of Russia and Belarus has existed, the Belarusian government will be adopting a financial policy that completely avoids new loans from Russia.
In its borrowing plan for 2020, the Belarusian Ministry of Finance has not budgeted for any new loans from Russia, according to the country’s “Primary areas of budget, financial and tax policy for 2020-2022”.
In 2019, Minsk expected $630 million from Moscow in the form of an intergovernmental …
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Russian and Belarus governments to present integration plans to Putin and Lukashenko by December 1
The governments of Belarus and Russia will present a roadmap for integrating the two countries to their presidents by December 1, RIA Novosti reports, citing Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Rumas.
“We are working on it now in order to present draft roadmaps to the presidents by December 1,” Rumas said.
He also added that a session of the Council of Ministers of the Union State has been scheduled for November 19, after which he will discuss integration plans with Russian Prime Minister …
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Kremlin recognizes Ukrainians and Belarusians as ‘native Russian speakers’
The Russian government has decided to recognize Ukrainians and Belarusians as native Russian speakers and allow them to forego the language interview when applying for Russian citizenship, the Russian government announced in a statement on its website.
“The draft of the federal law On introducing changes to article 331 of the federal law On Russian citizenship has been approved and will be introduced in the State Duma in the established manner,” the statement reads.
The bill will allow …
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Moscow may deny loan to Minsk
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced on Saturday that Russia had not made a decision yet whether to allocate $600 million government loan to Belarus. Siluanov noted that Belarus might not receive a loan in all, reports Interfax news agency.
According to the Russian Finance Minister, the difficulties with the allocation of funds will not affect the plan of the two countries to integrate the economies. Now, a "road map" is developed, which will determine the specific tasks for the …
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Belarusian President Lukashenko urges CIS leaders to support new Ukrainian government
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko urged the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to support the new Ukrainian government, reports the Belarusian BelTA news agency.
"Recently, we spoke about Ukraine. I want to express my position because both the Russian President [Putin] and I are very concerned about the situation in Ukraine because it's happening so close to us. Speaking about the new Ukrainian government, I would like to urge you to support them. There is already …
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Russian military attaché expelled from Belarus for espionage
Russian military attaché Roman Spiridonov was expelled from Belarus for espionage, reports sprotyv.info news outlet.
The publication writes that Roman Spiridonov "is not a diplomat at all." His main task is intelligence activities.
"However, he doesn't carry out his functions professionally, because his track record already has a high-profile failure – his expulsion from France, also on charges of espionage," the newspaper writes.
This is not the first incident this year, connected to the …
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Belarus sees no point in establishing Russian military base in its territory
Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said in an interview with RBC news agency, that "there is no practical, political, or military" need in the deployment of the Russian Air Force military base in Belarus.
Various media have repeatedly raised this topic. Moscow and Minsk previously confirmed that they are discussing this possibility.
Makei said that the issue is becoming irrelevant due to the development of modern technologies and expressed doubt that the deployment of Russian military …
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Belarus finds new ‘big brother’ instead of Russia
By the end of 2019, Belarus plans to sign a credit agreement with the China Development Bank to replace the loan it did not receive from Russia, Gazeta.ru reports, citing Belarusian Finance Minister Maksim Yermolovich.
According to the minister, the Chinese bank has only provisionally agreed to give Minsk up to $500 million. The interest rate is still being discussed, and the loan will be denominated in yuans.
“For quite a long time we have been building such relations with the Russian …
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Lukashenko: Belarus has created medium-range missile
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Belarus has been able to achieve significant results in the creation of unique medium-range missiles missile systems, which Russia is only beginning to develop. According to Belarusian President, much more powerful weapons are already being developed.
"The main issue was the increasing of the range and power of the missiles that we already have, and how we can use the experience of our partners, especially China, with which we actively …