Putin: Russia has no interest in absorbing anyone
This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, answering journalists’ questions after the talks with the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, BelTA reports
“Russia has no interest in absorbing anyone. There is simply no expediency in this,” the Russian leader stressed.
Vladimir Putin gave an example that during the talks in Minsk, the parties spoke about the sensitive issue of pricing in the energy sector.
“Today’s meeting (Aleksandr Grigorievich is absolutely right) was very constructive and very substantive,” he said. The President of Russia stressed that the matter is not in an absorption, as it is sometimes being presented.”
“The question is how the President of Belarus said that these issues in the field of pricing were fair. There’s no need to be a great specialist to understand what the problem is. The problem is that we have different levels of subsidies. We have different approaches towards subsidising individual participants in economic activity. The level is different, the approaches are different. Therefore, it is important for us to penetrate deep and agree on these general principles. This is what work in the field of customs regulation and tax regulation is connected with,” the Russian leader said. “Unscrupulous critics from outside either do not understand what they are talking about, or they specifically talk about it, misleading people who do not penetrate into it.”
“The issue is not in an absorption. The issue lies in the co-ordination of economic policy. The way it is done in many other integration associations. Everything else is nonsense. These are attempts by our ill-wishers to slow down our integration process. They are doing this only in order not to get effective and dangerous competitors in the world markets. That’s all,” Vladimir Putin summed up.
“Not just in their overwhelming majority, but these theses [about absorption] come from abroad, from our fugitives. A couple of thousand fled there, and now they have to earn money (it’s impossible to earn money by doing nothing), so they are thrown at them. They don’t even write them. These theses are thrown at them,” he said.
The Belarusian Head of State noted that the relevant theses about the takeover were also heard on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s visit to Minsk.
“Yes, they are starting to talk to us about this squeaky from abroad,” the President of Belarus stated.
