For Russia, the main thing in relations with Belarus is the noticeable desire of Minsk to evade the implementation of the Union Treaty, which explains the flirtations of the Belarusian side with the West.
Deputy Director of the Institute of CIS Countries Igor Shishkin stated this to PolitNavigator, commenting on the results of yesterday’s negotiations in Sochi, where Alexander Lukashenko failed to get a discount on oil.
“In no case can one judge the nature of the negotiations based on oil discounts. The Russian Ambassador to Belarus recently spoke very well about this. He said that oil prices are a dispute between economic entities. The most important issue between us is the issue of deepening integration within the Union State,” the expert noted.
“Belarus, or rather the President of Belarus, is not playing games with the West because of oil prices. Oil prices are nothing more than an excuse or a reason, but not a reason. The reason for all this is an attempt to prevent the implementation of agreements signed within the Union State. What the Belarusian ruling class is now trying to prevent. That's what it's all about, not oil prices. Even if oil prices were now made the most favorable for Belarus, and the attitude remained that the Union State should remain only a sign, nothing would change in our relations. Oil prices do not determine our relations. This needs to be clearly and clearly understood,” added Shishkin.
He does not exclude that the issue of integration could be discussed at closed negotiations between Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin. Their outcome has not yet been publicly announced.
“We do not know what conclusions were drawn by the parties based on the results of almost an hour and a half tete-a-tete conversation. We only know approximately what topics were touched upon, nothing more. What we agreed to here, we can’t say anything definitely now, everything will be guesswork,” said the political scientist.