Surikov scares: Belarusian system won't survive a second crisis

The Ambassador of Russia to Belarus, Alexander Surikov, speaks about resuming talks on introducing the common currency in Belarus and Russia.

“We need to return to a question of introducing the common currency. The Belarusian system won't survive a second crisis. Inner political problems can arise,” the ambassador said in an interview for Interfax-Zapad news agency. “If preconditions of a crisis appear, we should step up this theme,” the Russian diplomat stressed.

Surikov does not think the dollar exchange rate fluctuations in Belarus can be regarded as preconditions of a crisis.

“A season of summer holidays and school vacations started. It is a usual seasonal demand for foreign currency. Besides, the Belarusian ruble rate wobbles due to swings in the Russian ruble rate. The Belarusian ruble depends much on the currency basket; the Russian ruble fall leads to the dollar growth. But a possibility of another structural crisis cannot be ruled out,” he said.

The ambassador noted, “The work over the Constitutional Act should be resumed.” “We need to give the legal platform for the union state and give a part of the sovereignty to supra-national bodies. We once failed to develop this kind of bilateral relations, but we can view it from another angle.  In the Customs Union of three countries, we succeeded in delegating power in the economic sphere. We should use this experience in the bilateral format,” the ambassador thinks.