MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin may have a separate meeting with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, on Tuesday or will agree on such talks to address the most pressing bilateral problems, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said on Monday.
“There is no agreement on a bilateral meeting (between the Russian and Belarusian presidents), but during Tuesday events (summits of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, and the Eurasian Economic Union in Moscow), the Russian and Belarusian presidents will obviously have a possibility to discuss acute and most pressing subjects,” Ushakov told TASS.
He said that Russia was maintaining “close contacts at the presidential level” with Belarus. “I do not rule out that during tomorrow’s conversations the presidents will agree on a separate meeting,” the presidential aide said, adding that it was not excluded that Putin and Lukashenko might address the issue of Belarus’ cutting transit of electronic devices from Kaliningrad and other economic problems.
“The two presidents will have personal contacts — there might take an opportunity and step aside to speak or to agree on a meeting, but I think that there will be a possibility to organize a meeting with Lukashenko, regardless of tomorrow’s program,” Ushakov noted.
He refrained from comments on the Kremlin’s position on Belarus’s economic actions in respect of Russia. “I would prefer to wait till the two presidents meet, the more so as it will take place in few hours,” he said, adding that Lukashenko might also share his impressions about the Sunday visit to Kiev with Putin.