In an interview with RTVI, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently spoke about the future of the Union State and criticized Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Lavrov noted that work on the further development of the Union State is underway, and it is based on the 1999 agreement.
“There are 31 road maps. Each of them is dedicated to a specific section of the Union Treaty. So there is a disposition to continue the reform. This was confirmed by the presidents in a recent telephone conversation. This is confirmed by the meeting of the presidents in Sochi,” he said.
According to Lavrov, in Belarus “the situation is tense now because the opposition is trying to challenge the election results”.
“I am convinced that as soon as the situation returns to normal, the work on promoting the integration processes will resume,” the minister added.
The Russian Foreign Minister criticized Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and the Belarusian opposition in general. According to the minister, the neighboring countries allegedly manipulate the Belarusian opposition and “frenziedly set it” against Russia.
“I have already spoken several times about the situation in which Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya found herself. That she is not speaking in her own voice is obvious to me. She is in the capital of Lithuania (Vilnius), which is in the forefront, together with our Polish colleagues, demanding a change of power. You know that Lithuania has already declared Tsikhanouskaya the leader of the Republic of Belarus, and Lukashenka has been declared an illegitimate president. And Tsikhanouskaya makes statements that, of course, raise a huge number of questions”.
In particular, Lavrov was outraged by Tsikhanouskaya’s appeal to the security forces:
“The other day she announced that she calls on the security officials to take the side of the law. This is a direct invitation to betray the oath and treason. This is probably a criminal offense”.
Lavrov has accused the Belarusian opposition of wanting to move towards the EU and NATO, to carry out Belarusiffication and supplant the Russian language.
