‘Secret protocols’ not ruled out – Lithuanian FM about Belarus-Russia integration
Lithuania takes a dim view of Belarus-Russia rapprochement, news agency Interfax quotes Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius with reference to the radio station Ziniu radijas.
According to him, Russia is getting closer to the Lithuanian border ‘de jure and de facto’.
However, the minister stressed that it would hardly be fair to draw any conclusions from Russian media’s recent reports about the alleged plan of unifyig the Belarusian-Russian legislation by 2021.
“in the actual circumstances, I agree with some political scientists who claim that no one can deny there are some secret protocols in the agreements [supposedly, the draft program of the integration – belsat.eu],” Linkevičius said.
On September 16, the Russian media outlet Kommersant presented some details of the project of deepening the integration of Belarus and Russia, which was reportedly agreed by the prime ministers of the two states on September, 6. The integration may be ‘deeper’ than that in the European Union, the article reads.
If the information is anything to go by, the document provides for the partial economic integration at the same level as the EU member states have; in some fields, the integration will be similar to that of a confederation or even federation. In fact, the question is that Russia’s economy will swallow the economy of Belarus at the level of management, the authors stressed.
On the same day, president Lukashenka’s press secretary Natallya Eysmant told the Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva that the terms ‘confederation’ and ‘federation’ used in the article were nothing but ‘journalistic cliches’. The independence and sovereignty of Belarus and Russia are ‘sacred’, she added.
