The authorities in Minsk will receive new credit support from Moscow. This became known after the talks between the ruler of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which took place on Tuesday, July 13, in St. Petersburg. Their meeting – already the fourth in 2021 – lasted more than five hours. Neither Belarusian nor Russian media reported the amount of the loan in question. “We agreed on the amount of credit support in connection with the tax maneuver in Russia,” said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian president.
In addition, according to him, Putin and Lukashenko agreed on a number of measures for cooperation in “such areas as customs, tax regulation, energy.” At the same time, an agreement was reached on maintaining the price of Russian gas for Belarus in 2022 at the current year’s level.
EU sanctions against Lukashenka’s regime
Lukashenko said that thanks to Russia, Belarus is holding the blow of economic sanctions from Western countries. He called the restrictive measures “terror against the Belarusian people.”
On June 24, the EU introduced new sanctions against Minsk. In particular, Brussels has banned the import of oil products and potash fertilizers from Belarus. In addition, the European Union has imposed restrictions on access to its capital markets. It is also prohibited to provide insurance services to the Belarusian government and state institutions and organizations. The European Investment Bank (EIB) will stop all financing of projects in the public sector of Belarus.
A statement from the press service of the EU Council noted that the new sanctions were introduced in response to “the escalation of serious violations of human rights in Belarus, violent repression against civil society, democratic opposition and journalists, as well as the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk on May 23, 2021 and subsequent detention of journalist Roman Protasevich and Sophia Sapieha “.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
The first treaty after the collapse of the USSR
In 1992, Minsk and Moscow signed the first treaty of friendship, good-neighborliness and cooperation after the collapse of the USSR. Since then, there have been hundreds of official documents on the deepening of integration. The Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation are included in various associations, including with other countries of the post-Soviet space – the Union State of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation, the CIS, the EAEU, the CSTO.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
“Russia is sacred”
“Russia is sacred for us,” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly assured. In December 1999, he signed an agreement on the Union State of Belarus and Russia with the then President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin. Lukashenko was eager to form an alliance with Moscow, hoping to become the head of this association. But with the coming to power of Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko’s hopes were dashed.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
Union without an anthem
The Union State of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation has a common parliament, a cabinet of ministers, the State Council, and even the media. But there is no flag, coat of arms and anthem, and the leadership is carried out on the basis of rotation. This union is not recognized as a subject of international law. Moreover, Minsk and Moscow understand the meaning of integration in different ways. The Kremlin is counting on the political tie of an ally. Belarus, on the other hand, is seeking domestic Russian prices for gas and oil.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
Social package in action
Citizens of Belarus and Russia received real benefits from the Union State. In 2006, a package of international treaties was signed that confirmed the equal rights of Belarusians and Russians to freedom of movement and work, as well as in the field of healthcare and education.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
Trade as an engine of integration
Russia is the main trade partner of Belarus, for many years it has accounted for about 50% of exports and imports. The share of Belarus in the foreign trade turnover of the Russian Federation in 2016 was 5%. The main articles of Belarusian supplies to Russia are agricultural products, trucks, truck tractors and agricultural machinery. Mainly oil, gas and ferrous metals go from Russia to Belarus.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
Minsk calculates profit, and Moscow losses
The sale of oil products from Russian raw materials to the West makes a significant foreign exchange contribution to the budget of Belarus. For the export of these products from the territory of the Union State, Minsk pays duties to the Russian Federation. And Moscow is calculating the losses – the Russian budget in 2011-2015 alone did not receive $ 22.3 billion due to the agreement to supply the union Belarus duty-free from 18 to 23 million tons of oil annually.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
Life on loan from Russia
Most of Belarus’s external debt falls on Russia and the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development, which also oversees the Russian Federation. In 2017, Minsk will return more than $ 1.2 billion to Russian creditors, and in 2018 it should transfer $ 1.5 billion – almost 80% of all debt expenses. According to Forbes, over the past 10 years Belarus has also received subsidies and discounts for $ 60 billion from Russia.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
Oil and gas wars
The history of integration of Belarus and Russia was accompanied by oil and gas wars. Serious contradictions among the allies arose in 2006, 2010 and 2016. In response to the rise in the cost of Russian energy resources, Minsk threatened to cut off gas to Europe, introduced transit duties, and refused to pay. Moscow has promised to cut oil supplies. The allies came to compromises, but conflicts appeared on other grounds.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
Food scandals
The Treaty on the Eurasian Union, in which Belarus and Russia participate together with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, since the beginning of its validity on January 1, 2015, has declared freedom of the market and the movement of goods. In fact, food scandals between Minsk and Moscow do not stop. Rosselkhoznadzor has more than once accused the Belarusian side of pasting labels and re-exporting sanctioned products from the EU and Ukraine.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
On the border of allied friendship
Although Lukashenko and Russian Prime Minister Chernomyrdin in 1995 solemnly dug a border post on the land border of Belarus and Russia, in February 2017 the FSB demanded to restore the border zone and border control. This is the reaction of the Russian Federation to the “visa-free travel” for foreigners introduced by Minsk. In the spring of 2018, Russian border posts will be returned to the border. Russia introduced customs control there back in 2007.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
Atomic loan
The state corporation “Rosatom” is building a nuclear power plant in the Belarusian Ostrovets. Official Minsk claims that the nuclear power plant will reduce dependence on Russian gas. But opponents of construction predict an even more dependent position of Belarus on Russia. We will have to repay $ 10 billion of the Russian loan allocated for the construction site and pay the Russian Federation for the purchase of nuclear fuel, and then for its reprocessing.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
Military cooperation
After the collapse of the USSR, strategic military facilities remained in Belarus, subordinated to Russia on the basis of intergovernmental agreements. This is a naval communications center in the Minsk region and a radio engineering center in the Brest region. Both facilities are not endowed with the status of military bases, there are no lethal weapons. But experts point out that during the hostilities, these units will undergo the first blow.
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Sworn friends – Belarus and Russia
“Slavianski Bazaar” in Belarus
The Slavianski Bazaar festival in Vitebsk was started in 1992 as a festival of arts uniting Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. In 2001, presidents Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin and Leonid Kuchma gathered here. 4 thousand participants from many countries came to the 26th International Festival in 2017. At the opening ceremony, Lukashenka likes to play the role of a hospitable host.
Author: Galina Petrovskaya
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