While there were demonstrations in many places against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus received financial support from his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin.
Moscow will support Minsk in the coming weeks with a loan of 410 million euros. In a meeting between Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was agreed that the funds would be paid by the end of June. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies on Saturday.
Belarus is struggling economically and already owes billions of dollars to Moscow.
Concretely, this relates to the second tranche of the loan that was still scheduled for a forced landing of a passenger flight in Minsk, which sparked a lot of international criticism. Peskov said that Putin and Lukashenko mainly talked in their meeting in Sochi on the Black Sea about trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.
Pressure from the West
Belarus is struggling economically and already owes billions of dollars to Moscow. At the start of the meeting, Lukashenko complained about Western pressure on his country. After the plane crash, the European Union and the United States issued new sanctions. The Kremlin accused Brussels of an emotional reaction.
Minsk forced the plane to land in Minsk on Sunday to arrest Roman Protasevic, a blogger critical of the government. His Russian girlfriend, Sophia Sabija, was also arrested. Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Russia was not indifferent to Sabija’s fate. At the same time, he stressed that the 23-year-old is a Russian citizen, but also has a residence permit in Belarus.
Protests against the Lukashenko regime are taking place this weekend in various European capitals.
