Lukashenka decided to stay in Sochi to wait for Putin
- 20.08.2008, 8:03
Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Dmitry Medvedev had a face-to-face meeting in Sochi yesterday. Russian gas price, which is a main question for Belarus now, it wasn’t mentioned after the meeting. According to Russian media, Lukashenka is going to stay in Sochi till Saturday.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is going to visit The Grand Hotel & Spa Rodina, where Lukashenka stayed.
As Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reports, Alyaksandr Lukashenka arrived in Russian president’s Sochi residence Bocharov Ruchei two hours before the meeting. Dmitry Medvedev, who had arrived from South Ossetia, was there. It is unknown whether the presidents had a talk before the official meeting or Alyaksandr Lukashenka just came beforehand and had to wait.
Before the meeting the Kremlin made it clear that it took an extremely negative view of Minsk’s “modest” position on the conflict in Georgia and postponed the consideration of Belarus’ request for a loan and the lower of the price for Russian gas. Lukashenka took the chance to make up for it, not only throwing his full support behind Russia’s actions, but agreeing to form a single air defense system with Russia, Russian Kommersant daily writes.
Words alone are not enough for Moscow
Yesterday’s meeting was planned long before military actions began in Georgia, but recent events added to undercurrents in the countries’ relations. Russia was very annoyed with the lack of support it felt from Minsk. On the fifth day of the military operation, the Kremlin was unable to contain itself and Russian Ambassador to Belarus Alexander Surikov stated publicly, “We don’t understand why Belarusian authorities are keeping such modest silence. Issues like these require clearer expression, especially from allies.”
The timing is bad for Belarus. Lukashenka has just instructed his foreign ministry “to take steps to improve relations with the EU and US,” which only added to Moscow’s displeasure. With Russia increasingly surrounded by unfriendly countries, from Estonia to Georgia, Belarus was the chink in the anti-Russian armor. The sympathy expressed by Lukashenka the following day for the tragic events in South Ossetia was not enough. Moscow wanted very clearly expressed support, Kommersant notes.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave a distinctly chilly welcome to Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhei Sidorski when the latter arrived in Moscow on August 14 to discuss lower natural gas prices for Belarus next year and borrowing $2 billion from Russia. Putin advised Lukashenka to come to an agreement with Medvedev before returning to the subject of money this autumn.
Medvedev raised the subject of Georgian aggression in South Ossetia literally at the threshold when they met and Lukashenka knew what to do.
“I want to thank you for the courage you have shown,” he told the Russian president. “Everything was done exceptionally – very calmly, wisely and beautifully.” To be safe, he added that the West could not have acted the way Russia did, but would have “done everything in such a way as to make the whole world squirm.”
Words alone were not enough for Moscow. After the negotiations, Russian presidential aide Sergey Prikhodko announced that the presidents will hold a session of the high state council of the “union state” in the autumn to sign an agreement on creating a unified air defense system. The secretariat of the union state made it clear last night that the move is a response to the placement of American missile defense elements in Eastern Europe. It explained what Lukashenka meant speaking that “the recent conflict makes us take unpopular actions in the frames of the “union state”.