Suzdaltsau: Sidorski’s demarche may leave Belarus without partners and friends

The refusal of the Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhei Sidorski to take part in a meeting of the higher body of the Customs Union is no more than an attempt of political blackmail. Its goal is getting cheap energy carriers from Russia under the threat of our country’s refusal to become a member of the Customs Union.
This is the opinion expressed by the deputy dean of the world economy and politics faculty of the Higher Economy School Andrei Suzdaltsau in an interview with ERB.

Andrei Suzdaltsau: “The reason for the refusal to make the trip is the fact that Belarus will be going to revert the process of its joining the Customs Union if Russia does not provide benefits for Belarus. However, if the country’s authorities think that they will sit at home and demonstrate their self-respect to solve the Republic’s problems, they are mistaken”.

Let us remind you that the meeting of the higher body of the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan will take place in Saint Petersburg on May 28 and 29. It is informed that the Prime Ministers of the three states will conduct negotiations about a number of documents regulating the work of the Customs Union.

The Belarusian Prime Minister’s demarche is foolish. According to him, Russia is more interested in Kazakhstan as a member of the Customs Union than Belarus. It is essential that our administration should aim at taking part in such meetings and try to solve the problems of its country because the others are not interested in them.

Andrei Suzdaltsau: “For some reason the Belarusian authorities think that the Russian administartion cares about their problems. The Russian authorities do not care about Belarusian problems at all – they have a lot of their own problems. They probably think that if Sidorski does not take part in the meeting with Putin, it will embarrass Russia. On the contrary, Russia will think that Belarus has no problems Russia can help it solve and that everything is okay”.

He has warned that Belarus may lose its friends and partners as a result for such attempts and actions directed at the destruction of the Customs Union.