Andrei Suzdaltsev: Lukashenka goes to Baku to beg money

The Belarusian ruler hopes Aliyev will lend him some money again.

Politologist Andrei Suzdaltsev discussed Lukashenka's visit to Baku with charter97.org.

“Representatives of the Belarusian establishment often visit the capital of Azerbaijan. Representatives of law-enforcement bodies, the Belarusian MFA and so on constantly visit Baku. It's the first matter. The second matter is that Aliaksandr Lukashenka usually applies to Aliyev when he has big financial problems. We remember that Aliyev once aided him with a small sum. Of course, the sum seems to be small, but every little helps. A devaluation will be a great blow to Lukashenka's image. So, the goes there [to Azerbaijan] to beg money,” the expert says.

The politilogist notes that the Belarusian ruler regards Baku as a variant of solving oil issues.

“He counts to receive the necessary amounts of oil from Azerbaijan through the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline in case of tensions with Moscow. It's an interesting situation, because Belarusian refineries won't be able to process 23 million tonnes of oil that the country requests from Russia. Lukashenka seems to look for opportunities and resources to re-sell crude oil. The oil issue is always discussed during meetings of Lukashenka and Aliyev,” Andrei Suzdaltsev underscored.

The Belarusian ruler is expected to pay an official visit to Azerbaijan by the end of November.