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“Russians via their prime minister and the president, whom I met twice within one week, said directly that they had no way out but to support Belarus because Russian interests are over here, because they depend on Belarus in a lot of things,” noted Alexander Lukashenko. “Think, for example, about the latest events when heavy trucks were blocked at the border and in Ukraine as well as other countries,” he added.

Alexander Lukashenko reminded that serious negotiations had been held with Russia’s top leaders. The presidents of the two countries talked over the phone first. After that negotiations between the prime ministers of Belarus and Russia took place in Saint Petersburg. After that Alexander Lukashenko met with Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.

“The situation is complicated but not deadly. They agree that the situation is not deadly in Belarus or Russia. Yet they see some gaps in financing and so on. They said they would help with refinancing and with borrowing from the Eurasian Development Bank,” noted the Belarusian leader.

“It is a positive normal trend. We should join hands and get out of the complicated situation together. And we will get out of it. Times were harder in the past,” summed up the Belarusian head of state.

Alexander Lukashenko asked Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) Pavel Kallaur to report how much the financial stabilization proposals worked out by the central bank take into account needs of the real sector of the economy, what prospects of cooperation with the IMF and with the Russian Federation, “which has always supported us and supports” there are.