Lukashenka’s first post-election visit postponed: Putin busy?


Due to the busy working schedules of the presidents of Belarus and Russia the official visit of president Lukashenka to Russia has been rescheduled, state-run news agency BelTA reports.

“As you know, president Lukashenka’s visit to Moscow was scheduled for Thursday. Due to the busy working schedules of the both presidents we decided to postpone the visit,” the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The specific timeframe for the visit will be agreed soon via diplomatic channels.

The Belarusian leader was going to stay in Moscow on November 25-26. Alyaksandr Lukashenka was expected to meet with his Russian counterpart; a number of international documents were to have been signed afterwards.

Read also: Moscow applauds Lukashenka’s decision to pay first post-election visit to Russia

Talking to Russian envoy Surikov on November 16, Lukashenka stressed he was ready for a serious talk about Belarusian-Russian relations.

“After the presidential election in Belarus it will be right of me, as I usually do, to go to Russia, a country I cannot call foreign, no matter how some people may not like it. I think it will be a right thing to do. It will answer many questions,” he believes.

But on Tuesday, shortly before the scheduled visit, Turkey shot down a Russian Sukhoi SU-24 warplane near the Syrian border which violated the country’s airspace 10 times within a five-minute period, according to Ankara.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident a ‘stab in the back dealt to us by the accomplices of terrorism’. He also promised ‘serious consequences’ for Russian-Turkish relations.

Belsat.eu

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