Lukashenka scolds Russia’s envoy

The Belarusian dictator accused Russia’s ambassador of interfering into Belarus’ internal affairs.

On 14 June during a meeting with Bashkortostan President Rustem Khamitov, Lukashenka said that only Belarus can choose time, price and terms for privatization:

“I believe that we can reach an agreement. We have excellent relations. Our relations have a spirit. It is very valuable in our turbulent and odd time when even ambassadors can lose their grip and basically interfere into interior affairs of other countries in their interviews. However, they must have a grip. But I don’t think that anyone can undermine our relations.”

The dictator’s words can be interpreted as a reply to the interview of Russia’s envoy to Belarus Aleksandr Surikov published recently.

In particular, when asked why the Belarusian powers didn’t choose the way of the “normal privatization”, Aleksandr Surikov replied: “In this situation, politics and economics are confused”. The Russian Ambassador believes that “they hide behind pretty words, when they claim that everything belongs to the people; it doesn’t matter who will buy Belarusian enterprises, whether it’ll be Russians or Americans, but privatization is needed.”

Lukashenka said: “I want you to know that we are ready to cooperate on most democratic terms, if it can be put this way in an economic context. Privatization only allows a round table, negotiations. And if today Russia is afraid that cheap imitation goods from other countries will flood the common market of our customs union – well, we shouldn’t have founded the union then in the first place. Hardly has the launch of the union been discussed when some parties make statements that destroy the Common economic space.”

”We’ve established the Common economic space to be able to operate in this market with dignity, to always be able to protect our manufacturers, our people, to ensure equal terms for everyone within the Common economic space. All the documents are based on the principal that both large and small countries have equal rights and opportunities. It is unacceptable that one state that succeeds in something, is mobbed by other states (members of the CES),” the dictator said.

Lukashenka emphasized: “We know what competition is, what market is, but we don’t want the privatization that happened in Russia in the 90s.”

According to the dictator, privatization of enterprises should be negotiated. “There are certain terms clear to everyone, there is a specific price to every enterprise. If you don’t like it, don’t come to the talks. With other words, there will be privatization in Belarus, but it is our privatization, and it is up to us to decide what and when will be privatized. And the most important is that only Belarus can choose price and terms for privatization,” he remarked.

”One more thing: our starting point is that privatization and other issues involve both economy and politics. Any confusion in this matter is unacceptable,” he pointed out.

Moreover, according to Lukashenka, there is nothing negative in the fact that the Russian ruble still hasn’t been introduced in Belarus.

“Belarus means everything to me. So does Russia. Our relations are sacred, no matter what money we hsve. We use Belarusian rubles, Russians use their rubles. If we want we can make the currencies work in both countries. We’ll find a way. And there is nothing bad in the fact that we don’t have the Russian ruble,” Lukashenka said.

In the recent interview, Russia’s envoy to Belarus Aleksandr Surikov emphasized that the common currency should be introduced. He stressed that “the Belarusian system won’t survive another crisis.”

In his turn, Lukashenka pointed out:”Whether we collapse or not, whether we survive another crisis without the Russian ruble or not – this is an open question. What I mean is that apparently someone has already started to send us warnings: a crisis is coming tomorrow, Belarus won’t survive it. So I’d like to remind about the financial crisis that we’ve just had… By the way, the financial crisis happened despite a major rise in the national production. As a matter of fact, during the recent five years energy prices have become nearly five times higher. No other economy would be able to survive this. And at the same time we’re building our “union state”.

“There is one more thing. When it was announced that automobile customs fees will be raised to protect Russian automobile manufacturers, our people spent $ 3bln on old cars in Germany and other countries in just half a year. This is the reason. Ineffective organization or systems have nothing to do with it,” he add.