Lukashenko’s working visit to Russia over

The working visit of President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko to Russia has been completed, BelTA reports

Aleksandr Lukashenko has been on a working visit to Russia since July 25th. In the morning, the President’s aircraft landed at St. Petersburg airport where he was welcomed by St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov. They had a substantive conversation on a range of issues right at the ramp before Aleksandr Lukashenko went by helicopter to the Island of Valaam on Lake Ladoga in Karelia.

This place is known not only for its unique natural beauty, but first of all as one of the main spiritual Orthodox centres of Russia. The Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour is located here.

The places are quiet, beautiful, secluded and sacred — what is necessary to discuss in an informal setting the earthly yet important issues for strengthening the spirit and co-operation between the two countries’ nations. This is probably why Aleksandr Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin visited these holy places for the third time in July.

After meeting on Valaam, the presidents visited the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God on the territory of the Smolensk skete before going to the Chapel of Holy Royal Passion-Bearers.

After that, they continued their communication in a closed format. The heads of state also spent the next day on Valaam.

The focus was on the international and regional agenda, as well as the Belarusian-Russian liaisons. The leaders of the countries communicated a lot and in detail.

However, so far only a few minutes of video footage of informal communication between the two presidents have been released to the media. Judging by these small fragments, they also talked about changes in the climate and the weather, which was unusually warm this time even in the north (although not the extreme) Russia. The beauty of the local nature was also discussed. “It’s beautiful! You were right to say [to the monks] that they live truly in paradise,” Vladimir Putin addressed his Belarusian counterpart.

It is possible that the details of the negotiations will soon become known firsthand, but the atmosphere was clearly favourable for their results to be very productive.