MINSK, 11 February (BelTA) – The Normandy Four that met in Minsk in February 2015 definitely meant business, Press Secretary of the Belarusian President Natalya Eismont said in the documentary "In Search of Peace" aired by the Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA learned.
The talks of the Normandy Four, which took place in the Belarusian capital in February 2015, lasted about 17 hours. Today, the authors of the document noted, it is obvious who really wanted peace in Ukraine back then. Over time, those events began to . They say that the negotiations were conducted only for show, that some wanted to earn political points or to bide the time to prepare for new hostilities. In other words, in some opinions, it was all just for show.
"Our president has already spoken about this many times. It is probably difficult to add anything to what the president said in response to all of these fake stories that we saw not so long ago. Unfortunately, today many events of the past are misrepresented to serve someone's political interests. History is rewritten, the terrible episodes of our history are misinterpreted. The events of the recent past are also rewritten. And in my personal opinion, this is exactly the case,” said Natalya Eismont.
She recalled that the negotiations were very tense, the parties painstakingly sought ways to resolve that difficult situation.
“I want to express my personal view (because I have also thought about it a lot recalling those events). We worked for two days in the Palace of Independence. Everyone - the Belarusian organizers and members of the delegations that flew in, as well as numerous journalists. No sleep, no rest – it was colossal stress. Negotiations do not take 17 hours and are not held at such a level and do not attract so much media attention, unless they are held in earnest. And this was the mood. This will definitely be remembered by everyone who was here, in the Palace of Independence, for two days. Perhaps not everyone will say this out loud (both your counterparts overseas and a little closer), but I am absolutely sure: they all, like us, know that the negotiations were held in earnest,” the press secretary of the president of Belarus is convinced.
BelTA journalist Vladimir Matveyev recalled the details of the Normandy Four meeting. Journalists representing various countries were “on duty” at the Palace of Independence waiting for the results of the meeting. When the negotiations were announced to be over, they immediately surrounded the presidents. For them, it was certainly not just a show-off. 
“I just ran upstairs. I was supposed to cover the briefing by Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin that night. He took a shorter way up there, by elevator, and I had to run around the Palace of Independence. It so happened that I ran in there literally two minutes before Putin came in. Then the doors just closed, and if I had hesitated for a couple of minutes, I would not have made it. Two of my colleagues, accordingly, went to cover briefings by Poroshenko, Merkel and Hollande,” Vladimir Matveyev said. 
Afterward, Vladimir Putin admitted to journalists that it was not the best night of his life, but the morning, in his opinion, was good. “Despite all the difficulties in the negotiation process, we still managed to agree on the main thing,” the Russian leader said back then.
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