Nyaklyaeu promises to sell pipelines and oil processing plants to Moscow
However, he insists on transferring the Russian rocket base out of our territory. The presidential contender will also suggest Brussels to sign an agreement on
“Russian vector” in the external policy will be President Nyaklyaeu's
priority. According to the leader of the "Tell the Truth!" campaign, not
a single agreement with Russia signed by current Belarusian authorities
will be abolished. However, all of them will be reconsidered and
normalized. This was said by the presidential contender Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu during his meeting with the foreign journalists.
Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “We
have analyzed all Lukashenka's agreements for 16 years with different
leaders of Russia. There are two blocks of them: CIS agreements and
Belarus-Russia Union agreements. If we try to extract something
substantial of all this rubbish and empty words, we'll see there are not
many things that matter. However, there are some important things which
cannot be thrown away or forgotten”.
Nyaklyaeu and his team will form "the concept of responsible
neignbourhood" from what would be left, and build the relations with the
Eastern neighbour basing on it. New agreements will be made on the
neighbourhood basis. First, in the economic sphere. As, to the opinion
of Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, Belarus desperately needs investments. It
doesn't matter where they come from - money has no nationality.
Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “What
it (Russian capital - ERB) can do here - that's what should be
precisely defined. Russian capital should buy and take something which
if not Russian yet, then almost Russian. Something nobody but Russia
needs in the first place. For example, pipelines. These pipes which were
buried under the ground for dozens of years need reconstruction,
repair, big investments, which Belarus cannot provide. The same is with
oil-processing plants, which work on Russian raw materials anyway. When
they become owners, it will be much easier to negotiate with the
Russians and solve issues which seem to be impossible to solve now”.
Nyaklyaeu's
team will sell other enterprises to Russia, too, but on the condition
of their modernization. As in this case the enterprise will function and
give jobs to Belarusians.
Nyaklyaeu's government will not also reconsider existent military
agreements with Russia in accordance with uniliteral provisions. For
example, with regard to the Russian base of tactical missiles. However,
the military doctrine of the potential candidate for President does not
prescribe their location at our territory. In future.
Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “I
think the rockets will be extradited in the perspective, as Belarus has
already declared itself a neutral state. This strategy of development
of Belarus contradicts the presence of tactical missiles”.
The head of Nyaklyaeu's electoral headquarters Andrej Dzmitryeu joined this discussion. His comment nearly led to the first political crisis in the contender's team.
Andrej Dzmitryeu: “This
is a very hard decision. Moreover, and that's important - in the
Nyaklyaeu's Belarus it won't be Nyaklyaeu to decide on everything”.
Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “I don't get it!”
Andrej Dzmitryeu: “I'm
sorry, Uladzimir Prakofievich! We are talking about a serious
constitutional reform, there will be a parliament. Such issues should be
considered not by the President, but by the parliament elected by the
people”.
As for the "Western vector" of Nyaklyaeu's policy, the contender
has not talked about it as long as about the Eastern one. However, he
said it was because we needed to start building relationship with the
West from the ground up, in fact.
Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “We'll
have to elaborate this vector from the very start I think. We'll have
active cooperation with the EU. As we can get what we want, as well as
Russia, only from the EU, from the West - I mean nanotechnologies in the
first place”.
According to Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, he will do
his best to get Belarus back to the Council of Europe, Parliamentary
Assembly, OSCE. However, as Andrej Dzmitryeu said, the first step will
be signing of agreement on cooperation with the EU and providing free
visas to Europeans..
Photo: Zmitser Lukashuk