Belarus President’s Press Secretary on details of Normandy Four talks in Minsk: no sleep, no rest
The Normandy Four, which met in Minsk in February 2015, were seriously disposed to negotiations – as stated by the Press Secretary of the President of Belarus, Natalya Eismont, in her talk with the Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA reports
The Normandy Four negotiations, which took place in the Belarusian capital in February 2015, lasted about seventeen hours, and – as noted by the authors of the film – it is already obvious to everyone who really wanted peace in Ukraine back then. However, over time, interpretations of those events have begun to appear: i.e. some assert that the talks were virtually a show, that someone just wanted to score political points on that or simply to play a waiting game to get prepared for new hostilities. In short, there is an opinion that everything was being done just for show at that time.
"Our President has spoken on the issue more than once, so it is probably difficult to add or strengthen anything from what the President replied to all the recent false stories of the kind. Unfortunately, our modern life is guided by endless political affairs. We see this in the example of terrible events from our history, how history is being rewritten. The events or the essence of the events that took place not long ago are being rewritten. In my personal opinion, this is exactly the case," Ms. Eismont said.
The Press Secretary recalled that the negotiations had been very tense, the parties had been carefully and very seriously looking for ways to resolve that difficult situation.
"I want to say this on my own behalf (actually, I also thought a lot about those events). We worked at the Palace of Independence for two days. Everyone – Belarusians as organisers, members of the delegations that arrived, and numerous journalists – experienced a tremendous strain, with no sleep or rest. If something is being done for a show or when it is not for real, then no 17-hour-long negotiations that attract the eyes of the whole world are possible at such a level. There was determination [to negotiate], and everyone who was present for two days here, at the Palace of Independence, will definitely remember that. Maybe not everyone will admit this (I am talking about your colleagues overseas and a little closer, towards the West), but I am absolutely sure that they all, like us, understand that the mood for negotiations reigned there," Ms. Eismont added.
BelTA journalist Vladimir Matveev also recalled how the Normandy Four meeting took place. Reporters from different countries were all time at the Palace of Independence, awaiting the results of the meeting. When it became known that the negotiations had ended, they — almost literally — attacked the presidents. No doubt, everything happening then was not a show-off for them.
“I just ran upstairs. In my area of responsibility, in particular, was the approach of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. He went there by a shorter route, by elevator, and I had to run in circles within the Palace of Independence. It so happened that I ran in there literally two minutes before Putin came in. The doors closed then. If I had not made it, if I had lost just a couple of minutes, then I would not have made it in time. Two of my colleagues, respectively, went to other locations to meet with Poroshenko, Merkel and Hollande were," Mr. Matveev said.
Vladimir Putin later admitted to reporters that it was not the best night of his life, but the morning, in his opinion, was kind. "Despite all the difficulties of the negotiation process, we managed to agree on the main point,” the Russian leader said then.
