Meeting with Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin

At last the relations between Belarus and Russia are open and fair, Belarusian President FpreAleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin on 2 December.

“We have known each other for a very long time and we are like-minded people. Yet, this is our first official meeting. This is kind of odd. But I think a good beginning is half the battle. We will catch up if we have missed something. However, as we see today, we can hardly blame ourselves for anything. The relations between Belarus and Russia are finally developing in an open and honest way,” the head of state said.

The President also noted that ‘it feels that the bilateral relations are free from hidden underlying movements’. “We are very happy about this. They say that some external force had an impact on us. But something always has an impact us from the outside, we also have an impact on someone. This is not the point. The point is that we understand that we must preserve the centuries-long civilization that still exists in our common fatherland. If we fail to do this, we will destroy this civilization. The West rants and raves discussing these goals of ours, but these goals remain,” the head of state emphasized.

Aleksandr Lukashenko explained that by the shared civilization he means Belarus and Russia where people of different ethnicities have co-existed peacefully. "This is the essence of our civilization. We have never oppressed anyone and will never do, unlike them," the President said. In his opinion, Ukraine is part of this civilization, too. The Belarusian leader expressed confidence that the Ukrainian people "will have their say and reverse the situation" back to how it always was.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that what the external destructive forces are doing today is disgusting and dirty. "We see it. They failed to destroy Belarus last year. So they have opted for a slow strangulation plan. It is clear that this effort fits the general context of the struggle against the Russian Federation, against those friends who stand by Russia and Belarus today," the head of state said.

"We have a strong position in this regard. We must not just survive. We must develop, move forward, and show them that we can do without them. We have everything for that. I am sure that the State Duma and you as a leader share this position," the President said.

"So don't worry about Belarus. We are holding up," the Belarusian leader continued. He noted that in Russia they are now comparing Belarus in this global confrontation to the Brest Fortress. "This is a good comparison. But we will no longer be the Brest Fortress, we will not let anyone besiege us. If this message is still unclear, we will explain it, and that is what we are doing together with Russians," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

As he met with Vyacheslav Volodin, the President said he constantly stays in touch with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin: “We constantly stay in touch, inform each other about the situation, and plan our future actions. I think we will once again compare notes at the end of the month. We’ll talk about what is going on now and will determine our future for the next year.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko also mentioned that negotiations of heads of state of the post-Soviet space are supposed to take place soon. Especially since the 30^th anniversary of the foundation of the Commonwealth of Independent States is celebrated this year and the first meeting of the CIS heads of state in the history of this association took place in Minsk on 30 December 1991.