"Russia's share in Belarus' total trade is approaching 65-70%"
Provocations by Ukraine on the border with Belarus are not weakening, the republic's Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov has said. He stressed that Minsk also records a lot of "militarized actions" of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. In general, the situation remains difficult: "The more people rattling weapons on the border on the other side, the higher the probability of escalation. According to the head of the agency, there were also attempts to interfere in the presidential election, which was won by Alexander Lukashenko on January 26. Nevertheless, the republic is also receiving signals for normalization of relations even from some Western countries. But Russia will remain Belarus' main partner. The republic also intends to become a full-fledged member of BRICS. About joint plans with Russia and the complicated security situation - in an exclusive interview with Maxim Ryzhenkov "Izvestia".
"Wefelt the influence and even, perhaps, rough influence from a number of international figures"
- On January 26, presidential elections were held in Belarus. How do you assess them from the point of view of security and was there any foreign interference during the voting?
- I can assess the elections first of all as a voter. In general, the voting was held at a very highly organized level. Security was ensured, as the Minister of Internal Affairs and his deputy said. In general, all conditions were created for our voting citizens in a calm environment, so that they could cast their vote without any coercion.
From the point of view of international security, I will tell you: if anyone had tried to come here at all, it would have been a big deal, and the President would have responded in the same way. But in fact, we felt the influence and even, perhaps, brutal influence of a number of international actors, interference, simply put, in our election campaigns. First of all, it concerns key European institutions, which took a course on non-recognition of our elections, because they have long ago realized how the situation in our country is developing, how stable the socio-political and economic line is, and that the incumbent head of state will win in the conditions of giving citizens a real choice. But this is not part of their plans.
Today the whole matrix of recognition or non-recognition of elections in Western countries comes down to whether those candidates have won who will then bring this or that country into the zone of governance or influence of the collective West. And if this is not seen, then immediately a whole bunch of labels are thrown on this state that, say, the elections were not free, there was no pluralism of opinions and so on. Even if the situation is calm today, even if the legislation allows holding these elections and all the conditions have been created administratively, believe me, they will still find something to cling to.
In terms of external influence - yes, there was an influence. Did it have any impact on our population? No. We saw for ourselves that people were in the mood to come and vote in favor of preserving the stable system that we have in the country. As our president says, we hold elections for our people. And the most important indicator of the success of elections is our people. The percentage that went to the polls and the percentage that voted for the incumbent president of our country.
- You spoke about external influence. From which countries were there attempts to destabilize the situation?
- These are key European organizations, the European Union first of all. When the elections were not held and early voting had just begun, we had already received a draft of the relevant statement of the European External Action Service on non-recognition of the vote, prepared in advance. It was prepared in advance. At the same time, the European Union is not just one state. And figuratively speaking, it takes time and the consent of all countries to agree on such a statement. You can only imagine how long before the voting day this document was already prepared, which means that the European institutions have such an opinion about Belarus. For example, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia - these countries behave like completely lost players who bet on the loss of Russia and our republic in recent years.
And every time their bet loses, they are increasingly framing their peoples, worsening the situation of their countries, economically taking their states away from normal development, from normal partners, such as Russia, Belarus, China, CIS countries. But every time their degree of boiling increases, their nervousness increases. The Polish Foreign Minister is a case in point. Then why such hysterics, such emotional outburst in your assessments of the situation? It means that something is not working out, it means that Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian politicians realize that sooner or later they will have to answer for the missed years of cooperation with Russia, Belarus, China, which would have given them a decent impetus in the development of trade and economic situation, in the creation of jobs.
"Despite all the sanctions, about $8 billion is the amount of our trade with the European Union"
- At the end of December, the European Union once again imposed sanctions on the republic. But many countries still realize the importance of maintaining relations with Minsk. Which states are now showing the greatest interest in cooperation with Belarus?
- Despite all the sanctions, about $8 billion is the amount of our trade with the European Union. And the most interesting thing is that most of the positions in this amount belong to those states, which are at the heart of criticizing Belarus and deploy anti-Belarus rhetoric in the European Union. That is, they call for sanctions there, speaking about the illegitimacy of our authorities, and under the guise of trading. That is, you form the position of the European Union, you force certain states, which are considered to be the locomotives of the EU, to suspend some kind of interaction, but what about yourselves?
Therefore, today, in general, there is interest in trade and economic cooperation. Many countries of the core of old Europe are showing more and more interest. And this can be seen in various events between the entrepreneurs of our countries. Through chambers of commerce and industry, chambers of business.
Politically, we are receiving more and more signals of readiness to build relations with us. There are so many issues that connect us with Europe: from political to humanitarian, from cultural to economic. Well, here on the perimeter of our border there are members of the European Union, who in every possible way hinder this development of cooperation, fomenting an atmosphere of distrust, while they themselves are solving their own issues in the background. But I cannot say that we have only such relations with all EU countries. Hungary is a good example. It acts in the interests of its people. This brings us closer together. Hungary acts in the interests of a united Europe. This also brings us closer together.
Our president has repeatedly said that his election program includes the normalization of relations with Europe. We are part of Europe, we cannot be cut off from it, just like Russia. And the best thing for all of us will be the development of the Eurasianism approach, where everyone will benefit. And Europe, and Russia, and Belarus, and Ukraine, and all other states. And today everyone is only getting damage here because of the position of some countries.
- Do you see a possibility of normalization of Belarus' relations with the West as a whole at the moment?
- There are possibilities. And such signals are coming to us, but they are, you know, like "both want and need". They seem to be ready for a greater increase of political status, lifting of some sanctions, solution of practical issues we are interested in. But they have stirred up anti-Belarusian hysteria, presented the entire leadership of Belarus as demons headed by the head of our state. They closed border passes, put thousands of Belarusian citizens on sanctions lists, imposed an incredible number of sanctions against trade with Belarus. Thousands of entrepreneurs and enterprises in Western Europe suffered from this.
Vitebsk, Belarus
And what has happened in four years? We have built our own very good trade system, we don't go there anymore. And we do not buy even through the small checkpoints that we have. And today this has affected entrepreneurs in the regions, which are already on the periphery of the European Union. Businesses there put a question to the local authorities: you either help us with the amount we have lost or open the borders. But they cannot open the borders. So they say, "Do something political, so that we sell to our population and they understand why we opened these borders. Only Westerners can come up with such logic.
"2020 has really shown us who our real partners are"
- Will Moscow remain Minsk's main partner regardless of external circumstances?
- We have always had a position of Belarusian multipolarity, which is that we develop our foreign policy and foreign economy with reliance on many centers of power. But no matter how much we want to realize the principle that we have always said that one third of our interests should be Russia, one third should be the collective West and one third should be the far arc, still even in this configuration the role of Russia will always be decisive.
Today, there is no such configuration even close due to sanctions restrictions by Western countries. Today, trade with Russia approaches 65-70% of Belarus' total trade. The political level of interaction with Russia today is so strong and strong that no other strategic direction of our foreign policy can reach it. Cultural, humanitarian ties with Russia, common history in general make it impossible to repeat such a set of relations with any other states or groups of states. The mentality of our approaches to all things modern, from traditional family life to traditional Slavic Orthodox values, is also impossible to replicate with any other partner.
That is why Russia will always occupy the most key place. Today, due to the conditions in which we find ourselves, these relations are at the peak of their development, which allows us to move as quickly as possible along the path of mutual integration. A lot of import substitution and innovative development programs are being implemented, which create a solid economic base for both countries. It is impossible to imagine the development of virtually any sector of our economy without Russia.
In the current situation, the year 2020 has really shown us who are our real partners, and who has always looked at Belarus as a tidbit either from the economic point of view or from the point of view of the resource base and realization of their geopolitical ambitions.
- This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Do Russia and Belarus plan to hold joint events?
- We have a lot of events planned. There is a plan of action, which we agreed on at the Supreme State Council just in December. We have many events, both joint and on each other's territories, in which we will take part. The central one is the parade in Moscow, where we will be present - we received an invitation from the President to take part in it. The train of memory, which travels through the territories of both Belarus and Russia with visits to cities - young people take part there. We have a lot of planned events in Brest Fortress, in Minsk. We have also worked out a corresponding plan of events in the CIS. Besides, we intend to hold events on the platform of international organizations, at UNESCO, at the UN. On the territory of the CIS countries and those states that share our values, we will lay flowers at the graves of unknown soldiers, liberators of these or those states.
We will hold round tables, we plan to publish books dedicated to historical memory. By the way, I would like to say that the Permanent Executive Committee of the Union State headed by Dmitry Mezentsev is working very quickly in this regard. They have a lot of projects, and I think that he will soon please us with new books, new conferences, and new round tables on this topic.
"Becoming a member of BRICS is our task."
- Belarus has officially become a BRICS partner. What initiatives is Minsk currently involved in? And how will cooperation with BRICS affect the republic and the organization itself?
- We are very happy to be a part of such a serious organization with the membership of such world giants. The status we have now received allows us to act in all dimensions of BRICS activities. First of all, it is a good platform for us to develop positions together with key political partners on the main items of the international agenda. It is also a good opportunity to always have contact with our partners at the highest level for the development of bilateral relations.
In addition, it is an important point of support in the plans for the realization of trade and economic interests. For example, we have recently held negotiations with a bank established in BRICS for the realization of investment projects. And we very much hope to implement projects in Belarus or with the participation of Belarus abroad at the expense of this bank. Besides, the cultural and humanitarian orientation is important, which contributes to the rapprochement of the peoples of the BRICS member states. For us, it creates a basis for further development of relations between the states.
Since we are in this organization, it means that we all share the ideas of BRICS multipolarity, share the ideas of taking into account interests and building peace on the basis of mutual trust and respect of all parties. We speak together on such international issues, where the voice of Belarus may not have been visible, but in such an organization it is visible. And it allows us to reach the level of such states as China, India, Brazil, Russia.
- In your opinion, does Belarus have a chance to become a full member of BRICS?
- There is always a chance. But in order to become a full member, we must first prove to all the main members of this organization the seriousness of our intentions and the relevance of Belarus to this organization.
Becoming a member of BRICS is our task. But we should also look around the organization and let others get used to us, see that we have stability in our aspirations. Then we will see.
"The first question is: why offensive weapons? The second question: why shake the air here in such volumes?"
- Moscow and Minsk regularly strengthen cooperation in the security sphere as well. For example, earlier Russia and Belarus invited Eurasian countries to join the development of the Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity. Which countries are now showing interest in developing the charter?
- All countries without exception are interested in the development of the Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity. In general, the development of the relevant document at the initiative of Belarus and Russia was a complete surprise for both the West and the East. This topic was not born out of nothing, but out of disappointment with the current situation in the Eurasian region in terms of security, stability, and the parties' trust in each other. This is the architecture that was once created through the mechanisms of the Helsinki documents. At first it was proudly called the "Security Conference", but then the OSCE began not only to stall, but the bias of its positioning became obvious to everyone.
That is, since the former Eastern Bloc countries, starting with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania, joined the European Union, the OSCE's activities on that territory have actually ceased to exist. Because it is not needed to monitor human rights in these countries, as the West believes. Because the task has been accomplished: these countries have been wrested from Russia, from the East, from China, from Belarus, brought under the influence of the West, plundered, put their leaders in charge, and firmly tied to the legal framework of the European Union. What should be done next? Their efforts go further to the East.
But Russia and I still want to have a form of dialog and security in our region, and it should not stop with us. We are developing approaches that will take into account the readiness of the European Union countries to move towards regional security. And we are understood there, at least the experts who came from the largest research institutes are talking about it directly - about the lack of trust, the lack of mechanisms - in the spirit of our charter.
And Europe wants to participate in this. But there are opponents there, of course. They do not need this trust, they need a mentor tone. That is why experts are more interested in this. But those representatives of the authorities who are worried about their country are also concerned about it. For example, the Hungarian Foreign Minister took part in our conference on Eurasian security, because Hungary understands the value of dialog and how fragile the world is today, how it is necessary to practically rebuild the trust that has been lost between the parties.
Mechanisms such as the SCO and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia are also tools for ensuring security. Such ideas are well received in Asia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and I have communicated our approaches and our vision of this map to our partners in Asia, the SCO and the CIS. We invited everyone to take part in its further development. Yes, the idea is ours, but all interested parties can implement it, because the Eurasian space is our common space. Therefore, we are counting on and see support from, first of all, our partners in the CIS and Asia.
- Recently, the situation on the border between Belarus and Ukraine has been turbulent. NATO countries are accumulating military equipment near the borders of the republic. What measures does Minsk intend to take in this regard?
- Yes, the situation is quite complicated. In fact, the provocations from the Ukrainian side with regard to our border have not abated. There are also a great many militarized activities on the part of our neighbors along the border: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia. Last year alone, about 180 events [which had] the character of exercises with the use of heavy weapons along our border, where more than 150,000 servicemen took part.
Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov in an interview
Poland is arming itself to the teeth, collecting the best weapons from all over the world, from the United States to South Korea, with offensive weapons. Lithuania and Latvia, for once, are ready to spend almost their entire budget on militarization. The first question is: why offensive weapons? The second question is: why do you need to shake the air here in such volumes? Third: do you have nowhere else to spend this money in your own countries? For example, on people's pensions, on solving socio-economic issues.
Today, we have called for spending up to 6-7% of GDP on defense - this turns into 20-25%, or even 30% of the budget of these countries. Behind all this militarization and inflaming of passions there is a benefit primarily for the military-industrial lobby. These are contracts worth billions of dollars. I read that exports of American companies alone grew by 30% last year. Behind every percent there are potentially human lives, destroyed infrastructure. They got dollars in their pockets, and someone got tragedies in their families. That's what these countries around us are calling for today.
It is like in a play: if there is a gun on the wall, it will go off at the end of the act. And our task is to prevent it by diplomatic means, without giving in to provocations. Because there will be no winners in such a confrontation. If the West today puts Russia and Belarus before the choice of civilizational existence, there will be no other option.
They do not allow that someone can use this kind of force. And Russia can use such force. We are together with Russia. We have signed a treaty with Moscow on joint security guarantees, which includes the use of nuclear weapons. In addition, there are agreements to deploy Oreshnik in Belarus. This is the most modern weaponry, which has no analogues even abroad. This is our response, but a deterrent response, not an offensive one.
I will honestly tell you that whichever of my Western colleagues I talk to, I say to all of them: stop scaring your people that the Russians will come to Berlin or Paris again, as it happened 80 or 200 years ago. There is no such goal, and there can be no such goal. Today there is one goal - to solve the issue of the denazification of Ukraine and the issues that Russia is facing today.
As a matter of fact, there can be no talk that, having reached certain borders, this whole machine will go further. Unless you (the West. - Ed.) provoke, figuratively speaking, with your direct intervention in the conflict by NATO troops. Some hear it, some do not, for example Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Their main resource today - to get money, to gain some political weight - is to stir up anti-Russian rhetoric. What for Germany, France, Great Britain is a problem and big expenses, deterioration of people's lives, for these countries is a source of income.
- In your opinion, how likely is escalation on the border?
- The more people rattling guns on the border on the other side, the more likely escalation is. Because who knows what kind of soldier is going to get in his head. We've had episodes like this before. They shoot somewhere on the border, and the same thing happens on the Ukrainian side. Well, people are in constant psychological stress, in depression. And the issue of provocation, not only controlled, but also accidental - it is very high in such conditions.
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