President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko adopted credentials from the new ambassador of Russia in the Republic of Evgenia Lukyanov, appointed to this post on March 25. It is reported by BelTA.
In addition to the Russian diplomat, the credentials of the head of the state were also awarded by the ambassadors of Iraq, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone.
As politician stated at the event, Russia and Belarus are now built durable and mutually beneficial relations. He expressed confidence that such a situation will continue in the future. “There is no sphere in which our countries would not have close and durable ties,” Lukashenko explained.
All 2019 and the first half of the 2020th, before the election of the head of state that became the impetus for the beginning of mass protests, Lukashenko repeatedly stated the need to conduct multi-vector policies and build an independent country. He regularly complained about the “Imperial Spirits” of Russia, criticizing the project of integration within the framework of the Allied State.
Later he softened the rhetoric and proposed to deepen economic and military integration with Moscow, but from proposals to enter into Russia or to create new supranational authorities refused. “The world has changed so much that it would be just stupid to even work in this direction,” said Lukashenko.
Evgeny Lukyanov began a diplomatic career in 2016. Until spring, 2021, he headed the Russian Embassy in Latvia. From 2012 to 2016, he held an assistant secretary of the Security Council of Russia, and from 1993 to 2006 he was in leadership positions in Dressert-Bank and VTB.