MOSCOW, 2 December (BelTA) – Calls made by Belarusian political migrants traveling around the European Union are aimed at escalating the conflict not at finding dialogue, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov told the media after a videoconference meeting of the CSTO Foreign Ministers Council on 1 December, BelTA has learned.
“Talking about the calls that the Belarusian political migrants are making from Vilnius, Warsaw, and other Western capitals while traveling around Europe, making speeches in different EU organizations, raise many questions,” Sergey Lavrov said. “They are about ultimatums not dialogue. They have already made many calls, including to the military personnel and law enforcement officers to violate the oath, to go ‘underground' and to switch to the side of the radical opposition. This raises great concerns, because this is aimed at escalating the conflict, not at channeling it into a political process, towards dialogue, for which, as we have heard repeatedly, the Belarusian leadership is ready. There is an initiative on the constitutional reform, the Belarusian People's Congress. We discussed this recently with Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko and Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei in Minsk. We actively support the trend towards the widest possible national dialogue, during which all the main groups of the Belarusian society will be able to contribute to the normalization of the situation.”
Speaking about threats to disconnect Belarus, and earlier Russia, from the SWIFT system and why it has become the subject of blackmail, Sergey Lavrov stated: "SWIFT is one of the topics used by those, who do not want the situation to settle down, to issue ultimatums and threats." He recalled that this system was created by the United States and its allies, it serves the financial flows necessary for normal trade, trade in services, investment and virtually all other aspects of economic life. "The conclusion is very simple: we need to develop our own mechanisms that will not be dependent on the West, especially since it has repeatedly proved to be an unreliable partner," Sergey Lavrov said. "Relying on the multilateral instruments that are entirely under the control of Western structures is no longer entirely reliable."
“Switching to own settlement systems is not only theory. Efforts have been underway to translate this idea into practice in the Russian Federation and in the Eurasian Economic Union. The heads of government of the states-members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization met just the other day. This topic is relevant, and we will certainly seek its implementation, regardless of how the issue with the SWIFT system is resolved and what steps Western colleagues will take next,” Sergei Lavrov noted.
