Lukashenko left the summit in Beijing early. Journalists say - out of resentment towards Putin
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko left the summit in China early, allegedly due to an unspoken conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
This is reported by the Rasstriga Telegram channel, which is run by Russian journalist Sergei Dorenko.
“The plane of the ruler of Belarus took off from China ahead of schedule and headed to Minsk. Alexander Lukashenko did not wait for the end of official meetings and left the “One Belt, One Road” summit ahead of time,” the telegram channel said.
According to the website PlaneFinder , which tracks the movements of aircraft, the government plane EW-001PB departed for Minsk on the evening of April 26.
“Lukashenko missed all Saturday’s events. This action is a gesture of resentment towards Putin. “Putin avoided the meeting,” the authors of the Telegram channel explain Lukashenko’s action.
In recent months, there has been tense rhetoric in relations between Minsk and Moscow. Bloomberg previously reported that the Kremlin is considering creating a new state by uniting Russia with Belarus. In January, Lukashenko said that Belarus would not unite with Russia, but was ready to develop the Union State. He also noted that he agrees to a single currency with Russia – the “common ruble.”
At the same time, Lukashenko is confident that 98% of Belarusians will vote against unification with the Russian Federation, and Russians, in turn, “are ready for unification even tomorrow.”
Lukashenko left the Beijing summit early. Journalists say it was out of resentment towards Putin.