Lukashenko was responsible for closing the border with Belarus
The current closure of the border in Belarus in the fight against coronavirus is due to the unilateral actions of President Alexander Lukashenko back in 2017.
The coordinator of the Russian-Belarusian expert club, Vyacheslav Sutyrin, wrote about this in his Telegram channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The imbalance of approaches within the Union State was clearly evident back in 2017, when Minsk unilaterally introduced visa-free travel with 80 countries. Then, on instructions from the presidents, Moscow and Minsk prepared an agreement on a common visa area. As the Belarusian Foreign Ministry clarified in the fall of 2019, the agreement is ready, but Minsk would like to “look at it more carefully.” Without this basis, coordinating positions on more sensitive issues, especially epidemic control, is fantastic,” the expert noted.
In his opinion, a decision on the borders of the Union State can only be institutional.
“We need general mechanisms for monitoring compliance with uniform rules and responsibility for their violation,” the political scientist said.
On March 16, 2020, against the backdrop of the spread of coronavirus, the Russian government introduced a temporary ban on entry into Russia from March 18 to May 1, including for citizens of Belarus and other CIS countries. Today, changes have been made to this order, according to which transit travel of Belarusians to their homeland through Russia from third countries is possible.
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