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Ambassador comments on Belarus’ cooperation with Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast

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MINSK, 16 October (BelTA) – Belarus maintains trade relations with 80 regions of Russia, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia Dmitry Krutoi said in an interview with Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA has learned.

Belarus and Russia plan to reach $55 billion in mutual trade in goods and services by the end of the year, and there is every opportunity to make it. “We have trade relations with 80 regions for at least one Russian or Belarusian ruble. We had positive dynamics with 69 out of 80 of them in January-August 2023. We have never had such dynamics before. If we look at the statistics of previous years, we used to add 35 - maximum 40 regions. Now we have 69. We also analyze it very carefully,” Dmitry Krutoi said. “Of course, it is difficult to add to a large base, somewhere we have small steps backwards.”

“We have been concerned about Kaliningrad in recent months,” the ambassador added. “We lagged behind with Kaliningrad not through our own fault or the fault of Kaliningrad, but because of this logistics sanctions story, when, by and large, obstacles were created in the Baltic countries to the movement of our products. We are developing new logistics, new ferries, bypasses, and container trains. Now a separate program to restore the supply of our cargoes has been drawn up with the governor of Kaliningrad Oblast. These are, first of all, cement, building materials, a wide range of light industry goods. The region is also actively buying foodstuffs. We see that in recent months we have started to level off and add up in trade with Kaliningrad.”

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