Putin dipped Lukashenko, who arrived “from the front,” into the sea
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko arrived in Sochi today for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin immediately emphasized that the purpose of the meeting was not to discuss the latest scandal involving the emergency landing of an Irish plane in Minsk, which carried extremist Roman Protasevich, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Thank you for coming. We agreed on this even before the next revolution...”, Putin began.
“A surge of emotions,” suggested Lukashenko.
“Yes, even without these events, we have something to talk about. I mean that in the first quarter of this year, Russia remains a key trade and economic partner of Belarus. We are seeing a significant increase in trade turnover – 18,4%. This is a good trend, it is important to maintain it with the active work of the government. They are now in Minsk. Mishustin called me and told me,” Putin said.
He recalled that the first unit of the Belarusian NPP will be launched in June. According to the President of the Russian Federation, this is just one of many examples of our cooperation.
“You and I are engaged in the construction of the Union State. We do this calmly, based on ensuring the interests of both Belarus and Russia. We are moving confidently in this direction. This work gives concrete results to our citizens. The only question is to do everything consistently, without rushing. Don't get ahead of yourself, but act step by step. Ensuring our interests in the way each party determines for itself,” Putin said.
In conclusion, he invited his colleague to take advantage of the good weather and swim in the sea.
“Thank you for your human attitude for inviting me on Friday so that I could take a dip in the sea. There is a lot of talk about this meeting. Even unexpectedly. We are there, at the front, monitoring every movement. They say that we meet very often. But this is our plan,” Lukashenko replied.
In the tone of the host of the meeting, he expressed confidence that this year the trade turnover between Russia and Belarus will exceed the pre-pandemic level of 35 billion dollars (last year it fell to 29 billion).
However, he could not help but remember the scandal of recent days.
“There are always people who want to cause problems for us. Taking advantage of this trusting relationship, I grabbed some documents. I’ll show you so that you understand what’s happening,” Lukashenko said and pointed to a large black “diplotmat”.
He called the behavior of the EU, which announced an air boycott of Belarus, “an abomination” and recalled that the Belavia company helped evacuate Europeans from resorts when countries were quarantined due to the pandemic.
“This case, Belavia has nothing to do with it. Someone else's plane. They blame the military for imprisoning him. What does Belavia have to do with it? Soaked to the fullest. They punished the labor collective that brought them out in the thousands during Covid. Here's their face. There is an attempt to shake up the situation to the level of August last year,” Lukashenko said.
He thanked Russia for refusing to accept European planes flying over Belarus.
“It’s clear what these Western friends want from us. But there are no heights that the Bolsheviks would not take. We’ll take it too,” Lukashenko assured Putin.
English version :: Read in English Putin dunked Lukashenko, who had just returned from the front, into the sea.