The Russian newspaper Kommersant, citing its own source, reported that Belarus had asked for help from Russia in supplying artificial lung ventilation devices.
Belarus remains the only country in the region where quarantine has not been officially introduced. In recent weeks, Alyaksandr Lukashenka has repeatedly stated that the situation with the coronavirus is “psychotic” and advised that people “treat” it with a steam room, tractor and cold. He is not going to postpone the parade on May 9. Despite the advice of physicians not to gather in large groups, all entertainment facilities, shopping centers, theaters, etc. continue to operate in the country.
When on March 31 it became known about the first death of a patient with confirmed coronavirus, Lukashenka said: “Poor guy, he couldn’t take it.”
On April 1, the Russian Kommersant published an article saying: “The ostentatious bravado of the Belarusian authorities at the height of the coronavirus pandemic is not preventing Minsk from asking Moscow for assistance in combating the infection.
Belarus, according to anonymous sources in the Russian government agencies, is among the post-Soviet countries, which have sent official requests to Russia to provide protective masks, test systems, artificial ventilation devices. Similar requests have been sent through diplomatic channels by almost all CIS countries. Information about the needs is accumulated and transmitted to the headquarters, where the decision is made to whom and what to allocate, says the source.
According to the publication, the requested assistance requires a special permission of the Russian government, as on March 2 a decree was adopted prohibiting the export of medical products from the country.
The Belarusian side has not yet commented on this information.
