MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. A joint Russian-Belarusian media holding to cover the agenda of the Union State should be established regardless of the financial costs, so as "not to lose the battle for the minds and hearts" of the people, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State on Thursday.
"Media resources. We, too, have experts discussing this topic. Vladimir Putin and I agreed back in St. Petersburg that we must have a major joint media holding company. We must create it," he said. "We have no right to lose the battle for the minds and hearts of our people on the frontlines of printed, television, radio and digital media."
Lukashenko stressed that such a holding company must be created regardless of the financial costs, also because "the confrontation on the West-East line shows no signs of subsiding."
"True, it may be costly to some extent, but if we really want to have a sound agenda, something to talk about, we ought to create this media holding, and not attach it to some other organizations. We have agreed on that. But it is quicker said than done, the more so since we need certain resources," he added.
Lukashenko already raised the issue of the Union State’s media holding with State Secretary Dmitry Mezentsev at a meeting in January. The Belarusian leader sees any future media holding as "a well-built, powerful and certainly up-to-date entity." Otherwise "we will be wasting money to no avail." He stressed that the staffs of the Belarusian and Russian presidents should work on this issue together with the Permanent Committee of the Union State.