Gutseriev will not save: Lukashenko chose Pompeo over Putin
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko did not accept the invitation of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to meet for the weekend in Sochi.
Political scientist Bogdan Bespalko stated this today at a press conference in Moscow, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We have now received reports that Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko has refused a visit to Russia. The invitation was addressed to him by the President of the Russian Federation. But on this day he will receive US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,” Bespalko said.
He believes that the point of no return in relations between Russia and Belarus has already been passed.
“I think that after all Lukashenko’s statements and attempts to buy oil on the world market, our countries will develop relations in a slightly different way. They will not be interrupted, they will not become hostile. But they will be much more pragmatic on the Russian side,” Bespalko said.
According to the expert, until now the volume of Russian subsidies to Belarus in recent years ranged from 1 to 10 billion dollars and exceeded the total amount of subsidies to all Russian regions.
He does not see any prerequisites for Russia to now make concessions on energy prices, which is what part of the Belarusian elite hopes for.
“The only one who supplies oil to Belarus is Mikhail Gutseriev. But in quantities that are clearly not enough for Belarus to earn a sufficient amount of foreign currency from the difference with world prices,” Bespalko concluded.
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