Opinions & Interviews
Lukashenko wants Union State media holding company operational in H1 2023
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MINSK, 9 January (BelTA) – It is necessary to create a powerful and modern media holding company in the Union State of Belarus and Russia in 2023. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement as he met with State Secretary of the Union State of Belarus and Russia Dmitry Mezentsev, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “We discussed the matter of setting up a joint media holding company once. I understand that press secretaries of Belarus and Russia have moved away from this work for some reason and left it either to you to handle on your own (although such things cannot be accomplished single-handedly). I’d like to remind you once again: it is our common decision, the decision of the presidents of Belarus and Russia to create a good, proper, powerful, and definitely modern [media holding company]. Otherwise, we are going to waste money with zero effect. I don’t like attaching companies to something else. We need an independent holding company that lives up to the times.”
The president remarked that time itself requires it. “To whom can we attach ourselves today? To whom can Belarus and Russia attach themselves? It is our destiny to walk together and for someone else to get attached to us. This is why I think that this media holding company has to start working this year, preferably in the first half of the year,” he said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that the administrations of the presidents of Belarus and Russia should work on the matter together with the Standing Committee of the Union State of Belarus and Russia. “We know some proposals of yours of this kind. They are received absolutely normally in Belarus. One thing though, Sergei Fyodorovich [Aleinik]. This complex, this media holding company has to be self-directed, independent if we want to create something serious and completely fulfill the 28 programs, which we put together back in the day. This movement has to continue,” Aleksandr Lukashenko told Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Aleinik, who was present during the meeting.
Dmitry Mezentsev brought a number of proposals to the meeting with the head of state. The president mentioned some of them. “I absolutely accept and like the proposal to eradicate red-tape in the operation of the Standing Committee (you are officials first and foremost) and for you, the Standing Committee to send the main messages and impulses for debureaucratizing the system relating to the operation of Union State bodies,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
“And a number of other, possibly routine, matters that you would like to discuss. Let’s discuss them promptly and briefly,” the president added.
After the meeting with the head of state Dmitry Mezentsev told reporters about the agenda of the forthcoming Supreme State Council session.
Dmitry Mezentsev said: “I presented proposals concerning the agenda of the Supreme State Council session to the president. The proposals were backed, all in all. Including the matter of results of trade and economic interaction in the period under review, a report of the governments on what has been done to realize the 28 Union State programs. It seems to me that cooperation of Belarusian and Russian central government agencies proceeds successfully. It certainly involves debates but in the spirit of genuine comradeship and interaction. And certainly we suggest and ask for the approval of an information security concept as a certain response to changes in the situation in the Eastern Europe region.”
The agenda of the Supreme State Council session will also include matters concerning the budget of the Union State of Belarus and Russia and a new format of realization of the regulatory acts that regulate the operation of Belarus and Russia within the framework of the Union State of Belarus and Russia.
Dmitry Mezentsev went on saying: “Certainly, we will raise the matter of dropping roaming charges. This work has to complete. The presidents gave the relevant instructions. We also suggested the presidents should look into the matter of symbols of the Union State. I am convinced that the instructions that will be given will allow determining via a collective, public opinion the flag, the anthem that will correspond to the stage of relations that exists between Belarus and Russia today.”
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