Expert on what space flight means for Belarus

The first cosmonaut of sovereign Belarus, Marina Vasilevskaya, made a successful flight into space. This is a significant event in the history of Belarus. The Director of the Centre for European Integration, political scientist Yuri Shevtsov, commented on the issue in his talk with Alfa Radio.

“First of all, space is one of those high technologies that we are trying to develop in Belarus. I would like to point out that other Eastern European countries have not developed much after the collapse of the USSR. Their standard of living has been raised, and, in fact, that is all. However, we still have a nuclear power plant, a biotechnology corporation is developing, and now we have flown into space. Behind all this is the development industry, not by increasing market capacity or printing extra money, but by locating high-tech industries in Belarus,” the expert noted.

Yuri Shevtsov stressed that the flight of our cosmonaut to the ISS opens up additional opportunities for the development of new technologies, “For example, it is now easier for us to discuss other programmes in the space sector with our Russian colleagues, as they see that we really want to develop.”