MINSK, 12 July (BelTA) – Belarus opened its first embassy in Warsaw due to views of Stanislav Shushkevich, who was the head of Belarus’ Supreme Council in the first half of the 1990s. Mikhail Myasnikovich, who worked as the first deputy chairman of Belarus’ Council of Ministers in 1991-1994 and as the prime minister in 2010-2014, shared recollections as part of the documentary “One for all” released by the Belarusian TV channel ONT on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the introduction of presidency in Belarus, BelTA has learned.
Mikhail Myasnikovich said: “Belarus opened the first embassy in Warsaw instead of Moscow. It was Shushkevich’s position. What fate awaited us over there? I don’t think we would have been given access to new technologies or some other benefits.”
In turn, back then the head of the Council of Ministers Vyacheslav Kebich had mainly pro-Russian leanings. “He spoke mainly in favor of looking up to the Russian Federation. And on the whole, despite my respect for Vyacheslav Frantsevich [Kebich], he couldn’t imagine that Belarus can be a sovereign independent state. He believed that Belarus should be part of something. He would tell me: ‘Come on, Mikhail! There is metal, there is natural gas and oil over there. Well, what are we to do?’,” Mikhail Myasnikovich said.
