Medvedev’s words meant nothing: MFA ignored him

The Russian MFA ignored the appeal of Medvedev not to call the country “Belorussia”.

We remind that this question was raised first at a press conference given by the Russian president to Belarusian journalists. The president of Russia said he insisted that the country should be called “Belarus”, not “Belorussia”.

The theme was raised again at a session of the joint board of the Belarusian and Russian ministries of justice. “The use of unofficial name of the Republic of Belarus is unacceptable in the work of officials and in official documents,” Russian minister Alexander Konovalov said and added that his ministry would see that this rule is observed.

However, “Salidarnasts” newspaper writes that by all appearances, the Russian MFA doesn’t care about the Ministry of Justice and recommendation of Dmitry Medvedev. Belarus is still called “Belorussia” on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

This could be explained with sluggishness of officials, but this suggestion is wrong: it is a principal position. The MFA told internet newspaper “Vzglyad” that Belarus is called “Belorussia” in Russia in accordance with the rules of the Russian language.

Everything seems to be so simple. Your partner asks to call the country Belarus. Your president insists that you should use the name Belarus. It would be rather logical in the current situation not to refer to a fake excuse of the “rules of the Russian language” (which are undergoing significant changes now), but to fulfil this not very difficult recommendation. However, Russian officials decided to strike an attitude, the newspaper notes.