Opinions & Interviews

Russian ambassador talks about principles for working in Belarus

MINSK, 6 June (BelTA) – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Belarus Dmitry Mezentsev talked to mass media and revealed what principles he is going to abide by while working in Belarus, BelTA has learned.

According to Dmitry Mezentsev, he experiences the most positive emotions in the wake of his arrival in Minsk and looks forward to interesting work, to the embassy team’s dedication to huge interconnected and multifaceted work for the sake of bolstering and expanding the bilateral relations.

Dmitry Mezentsev talked about the guidelines he received from the Russian leadership when he was appointed ambassador. “Do everything in order to make the scale and the depth of relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus even more productive so that people would feel it, so as to preserve traditions of the brotherly nations, the national Slavonic culture, economic interaction, the ability and the readiness to borrow the best practices from each other,” the diplomat said.

Asked whether he intended to continue working in the manner of the previous ambassador Mikhail Babich, Dmitry Mezentsev noted that he could not compare his style of work to that of the previous head of the Russian diplomatic mission because he had not worked with him before. The ambassador assured he would like doors of the Russian embassy to stay open wide for all the friends.

The reporters also wondered how the ambassador intended to overcome the certain alertness, which emerged in the Belarusian society in the period of his predecessor’s work. Dmitry Mezentsev noted that debates may be started even in families and relations between countries are not an exception. “But these debates should be looked at from the point of strategic partnership and that surprising practice of many years of relations that our nations and representatives of government agencies of the regions have built. It is the most important result. It would be wrong to fail to see it, to underappreciate it,” he stressed. The ambassador assured that he pays close attention to moods and opinions of the Belarusian society. “As for dangers and the tensions you [the reporters] mention, the attitude to them should be most attentive. What can we do about it? We can only practice more openness. We can explain things, which sometimes seem to be left unclear. We can explain the steps that help better understand the partner,” he said.

Dmitry Mezentsev is convinced that the potential of the treaty on founding the Union State of Belarus and Russia is great and both countries can do a lot more for the benefit of their nations on the basis of and taking into account national interests.

The head of the Russian diplomatic mission reminded that a large-scale celebration of Day of Russia will take place in Minsk on 8 June. He invited everyone to come and participate in it.

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