Lukashenka’s spokeswoman refutes rumours about emergency meeting on independence

The President of Belarus did not gather any meetings dedicated to Belarus’ sovereignty, Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s press secretary Natallya Eismant announced on Monday. “The matter of independence was decided in our country long ago and it cannot even be discussed. There have been no sovereignty talks, it is someone’s fancy,” she told the Russian news agency ria.ru.

Rumours about a closed meeting at Lukashenka’s residence emerged on Friday. Reportedly, Belarus independence ‘at the time of Russia’s pressure’ was discussed at the meeting. Those present in the meeting ‘decided to stand up for independence’, mass media suggested.

On 13 December at the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State of Belarus and Russia in Brest, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev bluntly proposed to deep the integration of Belarus and Russia as far as by creating a single money emission centre, customs and judicial systems, etc. 

The country’s sovereignty is sacred, Aliaksandr Lukashenka told the visiting journalists from Russia's regions on the following day. It will never be possible to divide Belarus into oblasts and “squeeze them into Russia”, he assured.

The reason for the latest clash between Minsk and Moscow is Russia’s oil tax maneuver. The Belarusian government had been hoping to get a compensation of up to 300 million dollars for the losses the country may suffer in 2019 do to this maneuver 

However, the compensation can only be discussed if the integration of the two states increases, several high-ranking Russian officials claimed. The tax maneuver is Russia’s internal issue and nobody had promised any compensation to Belarus, Russian Finance MinisterAnton Siluanov stressed on Friday.