Arkadiy Moshes: Kremlin Will Never Forget This To Lukashenka

• 29.12.2016, 13:03

The time of the “gas for kisses” policy seems to be over.

Director of the EU and the Russian program at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs Arkadiy Moshes has said this in an interview to Radio Liberty, commenting on the recent conflict between the authorities of Russia and Belarus.

“In the political sense, the refusal to launch a military base was a slap in the Kremlin’s face. Because, the Kremlin made a statement in public that the government had been tasked to sign an agreement regarding the base, the time passed, and nothing was signed.”

It is widely known that the Kremlin never forgets anything. I think it doesn’t forget and carefully watches all Minsk’s attempts to act in a wider corridor than Moscow would want it, in other directions.

I think that the time for the “gas for kisses” policy is over, and all the aid coming from Moscow will be rendered in exchange for more serious binding of Minsk, narrowing its freedom in both economic and foreign policy sphere,” – the expert said.