Lukashenko announced co-ordination of many issues with Putin
The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, said that in the course of informal communication with Russian President Vladimir Putin, many issues were agreed upon, which sometimes takes years for some states. The Belarusian leader stated this at a meeting with his Russian counterpart in St. Petersburg in the Russian Museum, BelTA reports.
“Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, for Moscow, for the cosmonauts, for the centre [referring to the visit by the Belarusian Head of State to the Cosmonaut Training Centre in the Star City near Moscow on December 24th, where six Belarusian applicants for space flight are being selected]. I went there and saw everything. Thank you for St. Petersburg, we also were demonstrated something. If someone, as you correctly said, thinks that we only drink tea, then I must say that yesterday, during this tea party, as well as late in the evening, returning home, we discussed a lot of issues. It sometimes takes years for some states while we finalised everything during the evening, continuing our Minsk dialogue, since it primarily focused on the economy. I thank you for the final agreement on many issues yesterday. The governments will improve them. They can’t have any questions for us. We have already decided what they asked us for,” the Belarusian leader said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also thanked his colleague for the cultural programme, “Thank you for the museum. You said it very correctly: the Year of the Russian Language is in place [2023 has been declared the Year of the Russian Language as the Language of Interethnic Communication in the CIS] very appropriate, stressing the importance. Thank you for St. Petersburg, for showing it to me yesterday. It made a great impression on me. I just felt sorry for the cleanliness. I’ll come to Minsk and will see that we pull ourselves up. It doesn’t even feel like it is winter here. The city is so clean, being brought to perfection. I have been admiring for several years what has been done in St. Petersburg. Of course, it would have been difficult here without your help. But still local authorities have also done well, so there is something to learn from.”
The day before the CIS leaders have met during an informal summit initially in an official setting, and then the heads of state went together to the venue of an informal dinner on behalf of Vladimir Putin in honour of the leaders of the CIS states. In general, the conversation lasted over seven hours.
Communication between the CIS heads of state continued on December 27th at the Russian Museum, and the programme includes an informal breakfast and a tour of the museum.
As far as the details of the communication between Aleksandr Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin are concerned, both presidents have accommodated in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, in Strelna. In the morning, the Russian leader took his Belarusian colleague to jointly go to the Russian Museum. Yesterday they also left together, which was mentioned during a bilateral meeting in the Russian Museum by the Belarusian Head of State.
The meeting between Aleksandr Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin took place in one of the halls of the Russian Museum under the canvases of great artists. Directly above the place where the presidents chatted, The Appearance of Christ Before the People canvas distinguished as a dominant on the wall. This is a large sketch of a painting by the Russian artist Aleksandr Ivanov (the painting itself is housed by the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow). The original intention of the artist was to create a painting of just this size, and only in the process of work he came to more monumental forms. The plot is based on the Gospel event.
