Opinions & Interviews

Call for equal rights of Belarusian, Russian border guards

MINSK, 14 November (BelTA) – It is necessary to ensure equal rights for Belarusian and Russian border guards in the course of amending the agreement on mutual efforts to protect the border, BelTA learned from Chairman of the State Border Committee of Belarus Anatoly Lappo.

When the agreement was signed, it was expected that Belarus will take care of security of its own section of the border of the Union State of Belarus and Russia and there will be no control at the border between the two countries. “We don’t need help. We can take care of our own security and the security of the Union State on our own,” the official stressed. “We want to know why Russian border service personnel have been stationed at our internal border. We haven’t stationed our personnel over there.”

“The new agreement has to straighten out all the issues. We are equal partners – Russian border guards and Belarusian ones,” Anatoly Lappo continued. “We’ve always honored our Union State commitments and will continue doing so. We’ve never had any complaints. But we demand respect as well.”

The head of the Belarusian border service stressed that the Belarusian border is secure. The fact that multiple attempts to smuggle weapons and drugs have been stopped confirms it. So far this year the Belarusian border service has stopped over 500kg of drugs being smuggled from Poland and Lithuania to Russia. In this context Anatoly Lappo believes that complaints about Belarus allegedly using Russian money and demanding aid look strange and absolutely unreasonable. “We are not freeloaders!” he made it clear. “If we were, Russia would have to pay for all the resources the Belarusian border service needs including weapons, vehicles, food, and uniforms. Then they would be able to say we are freeloaders.”

In his words, Belarus has no intention of terminating the agreement, however, it will insist on refreshing it. “Negotiations [with the Russian side] will begin tomorrow or the day after tomorrow figuratively speaking,” the official assured. Anatoly Lappo added that there is no specific deadline for preparing the document yet but one can assume it will not be a fast process.

Opening the border to all the law-abiding citizens and making the border crossing procedure convenient are some of the fundamental demands. “The border is a complicated mechanism. It should bring nations closer and needs to present a reliable barrier for all the negative things. We [and Russian colleagues] need to understand and complement each other in this regard instead of being an obstacle.”

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