Meeting with Chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin on 10 September.

The meeting with Alexander Bastrykin was held in the run-up to the professional holiday of Belarusian investigators. They will celebrate the Day of Workers of Investigative Bodies on 12 September. Therefore, at the beginning of the meeting head of state congratulated Chairman of the Belarusian Investigative Committee Dmitry Gora, who also attended the meeting, and all Belarusian investigators on their professional holiday. The Investigative Committee will also mark the 10th anniversary this year.

“Sincerely speaking these people are the main link in this serious work,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “We have good specialists in our investigative bodies. They are qualified, responsible and honest people.”

According to the head of state, he held talks with his Russian counterpart in Moscow on 9 September. “There were good events at the level of the presidents of Belarus and Russia yesterday. We agreed on many things, these are very serious agreements. We have not taken such steps before. These three years of preparation and discussion of Union State programs were special,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

According to the President, plans are in place to approve the Union State programs. “On 4 November, Day of People’s Unity in Russia, we will hold this event, a meeting of the Supreme State Council,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The programs were agreed during the negotiations between the two heads of state on 9 September. The documents will be finalized and adopted by the governments of the two countries.

“Serious work has already begun in this area. We have to turn over a whole layer of domestic legislation in order to adapt it to these agreements, especially our interstate agreements - they should also correspond to our agreements,” the Belarusian leader said.

In his words, security issues were high on the agenda during the talks. “The operation of investigative bodies was on the agenda. The Russian President and I agreed that we will do our best to support our investigators in this complicated time. The international situation has also affected our decision: the flow of refugees, the flow of drug to Russia and Belarus. Therefore, the role of investigative bodies is increasing. We will work together, and you can always count on us,” the Belarusian leader assured.

Speaking about the cooperation of Belarusian and Russian investigative bodies, the head of state remarked that the sides willingly share their best practices with each other. “I am grateful to the Russian side for fulfilling all the requests immediately. They share their experience, knowledge, the material basis, and will help us organize any events, if necessary,” the President added.