"Union with Russia strengthens Belarusian sovereignty"

Belarusian parliamentarians will pay a visit to Russia after the presidential election, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, MP Oleg Gaidukevich, who will compete for the post of the head of state in January, said in an interview with "Izvestia. The parties intend to strengthen ties in 2025. At the same time, Minsk is ready to cooperate with the West, as President of the Republic Alexander Lukashenko stated earlier. However, such a dialog is possible only taking into account its national interests. At the same time, Moscow will always remain Minsk's main foreign policy partner. Preparations for the elections in Belarus, relations with the West and priority projects of parliamentarians in 2025 are discussed in an exclusive interview with Oleg Gaidukevich "Izvestia".

"We will go to Russia as soon as the elections are held."

- Belarus will hold presidential elections at the end of January. In your opinion, how ready is the republic for voting? Do you think the absence of OSCE observers will affect its course?

- I will start right away with the observers. Their absence will not affect the elections in any way. Nothing changes. They write pre-prepared conclusions about the voting solely because of their political leanings. For example, they don't like the current Georgian authorities because they don't want to go to war with Russia, while they don't like the Belarusian authorities because we don't want to break relations with Moscow, support Russia and because we pursue a sovereign policy. Because of this, they won't recognize our elections. There is no other reason. But at the same time we have a huge number of observers from CIS countries, from Asia, China, from the Middle East. There are observers from the European Union - from individual countries.

So there are enough observers, but the most important thing is that the elections are for the people. That's why both in Russia and Belarus we need to wean ourselves off the idea that we care about the assessments of some other country. They do not ask for our assessments. Neither Poland, nor France, nor Germany, nor the USA ask our opinion about their elections. And we should not ask.

As for readiness, Belarus is ready. We will have good elections, competition. All parliamentary parties of the country are participating, they are different. There is no "fifth column. We should get rid of it, too. It's enough that those who called for violence, for the street, participated in our elections.

- Do you see prerequisites for deepening cooperation between the parliamentarians of Belarus and Russia in 2025? And what topics will become the most urgent?

- We have already drawn up a plan. It includes deepening of integration in all spheres, our main goal is to improve the lives of our citizens in Russia and Belarus so that they feel better. We have shown economic growth despite the sanctions. Our task is to build a sovereign economy that is minimally dependent on external players. This is what we are doing: we are creating our own production, focusing on innovative enterprises. There is a lot of work to be done both in Russia and Belarus.

- Are there any plans for a meeting of Belarusian and Russian deputies after the presidential election? Is the date already known? Is the issue of foreign visits also raised?

- Absolutely. We have planned a parliamentary meeting of the Union of Belarus and Russia, a session. And working meetings. I personally, as a deputy and party leader, plan to visit the Russian State Duma after the elections.

The date is still unknown, but we'll go to Russia as soon as the elections are held. We will coordinate with our colleagues. We are always communicating, we keep in constant touch. There are also permanent meetings of the commissions of the parliamentary assembly: that is, some deputies are constantly in Russia, they come to us, or Russian deputies come to us. This work does not stop on a daily basis.

As for foreign visits, they take place every day - this includes China, the Middle East, and Africa. We have also created friendship groups with different states, for example with the countries of Africa, Middle East, Asia, also with China, Russia. Such international work is carried out constantly, it is built on a systematic basis.

- Do you somehow plan to cooperate with Russian parliamentarians regarding the joint Russian-Belarusian development of the Charter on Eurasian security?

- We cooperate with Russian MPs within the framework of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia in absolutely all spheres. It is beneficial for us. We do not have a single topic on which Belarusian and Russian parliamentarians would not cooperate.

"Dialogue doesn't mean that we'll make any concessions to them."

- January 14, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced plans to restore dialog with the West. But is this issue being discussed in the parliament? And can we say that Russia will remain the main foreign policy partner of Belarus in any case?

- When the President says that it is necessary to continue dialog with the West and restore relations, he immediately makes a reservation and says that we have never stopped this dialog. And it is not our fault that relations with the West are bad. It is not the fault of Russia and Belarus. We have never been friends with anyone to the detriment of anyone.

We will never communicate with the West against Russia or against any other state. And Russia behaves the same way. We are not the ones who spoil relations, we are not the ones who impose sanctions, we are not the ones who support terrorist organizations in our country, as Poland and Lithuania do, who want to carry out terrorist attacks in our country. And we are not giving up on dialog now. But dialog does not mean that we will make any concessions to them.

We are ready only for an equal dialog taking into account our national interests. Such a dialog can be held even tomorrow, and it will be, because there is an axiom - Europe will not be strong without Belarus and Russia. They will not be able to be sovereign and independent without us and will not be able to develop economically normally. We live on the same continent.

"Russia will always be our main ally"

- Can we say that Russia will remain Belarus' main foreign policy partner in any case?

- Russia will always be our main ally. Because there are no analogs of the Union State anymore. Minsk and Moscow have no closer integration project than the Union State, and this project will continue to develop. The reason for this is that the union with Russia strengthens Belarusian sovereignty, statehood and makes Russia stronger, too.

- Earlier, Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov said that Minsk would focus its efforts on promoting the initiative of the global security dialog. Is there any work in this direction in the parliament?

- Of course. Today, this dialog on security sounds not only from our country, not only from Russia, but also from China, from many countries of the Middle East. Also from Europe, there are already voices coming from Hungary, from Germany, for example, we see [interest] from the Alternative for Germany. Also from Austria from the Freedom Party. Without this dialog, nothing is possible.

Europe's only trouble is that they are not independent. As soon as they start thinking not about American interests but about their own, this dialog with Europe will start more quickly.

We, deputies, officials, in Belarus, in Russia, should focus all our efforts on becoming stronger. Therefore, this is a priority, not a search for dialog. We have never refused from dialog and will never refuse it. But the dialog will be only on equal footing, there will be no concessions, because we work for our people, not for anyone.

"We must continue to work on memorializing and preventing the rewriting of history"

- The year 2025 marks 80 years of victory in the Great Patriotic War. What projects are planned with Russian parliamentarians? Do you intend to organize events dedicated to May 9?

- Our main task now is to unify legislation, to continue working in this direction.

And, of course, this year the anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War is important. Therefore, the deputies of the Parliament will have a lot of events related to this date: seminars, meetings in the regions, both in Russia and Belarus. We must continue to work on memorializing and preventing the rewriting of history.

- Earlier it was reported that Moscow and Minsk want to create a commission to investigate the crimes of Kiev. At what stage is this initiative now?

- These were ideas. There are no such decisions yet. Someone supported this idea, someone thinks that we have enough tools for work. But now we have enough work. If we need to create a commission, we will create one. So far there are no such decisions. We already have a lot of commissions. But it does not mean that something will not be created someday, everything is solved in the working order.