Ambassador Grigoryev: Minsk will accept any candidature for Russia`s ambassador to Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

Minsk will agree to any candidature proposed for the post of Russia`s ambassador to Belarus, said Vladimir Grigoryev, the Belarusian ambassador to the Russian Federation, according to Russia`s RIA Novosti news agency.

"Belarus will accept any candidature that Russia will consider necessary," the ambassador was quoted as saying in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on September 24.

"It is up to the Russian side to decide on whether Dmitry Ayatskov or another candidature should be assigned as ambassador," he said. "We, Belarus, have never interfered in decision-making on internal political and economic matters."

As Belarus` permanent representative to the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC), Mr. Grigoryev was staying in Dushanbe to attend a meeting of the EAEC Commission of Permanent Representatives on September 24, and a session of the EAEC Integration Committee scheduled for September 26.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed Mr. Ayatskov, former governor of the Saratov province, as ambassador to Belarus as far back as July 15, but the latter so far has not entered upon his duties in Minsk, which many link to Aleksandr Lukashenko`s angry reaction to a rash statement by Mr. Ayatskov.

"I would like and I will sure be the last ambassador of Russia to Belarus,"
the ex-governor said at a news conference in Saratov on July 19.

He made clear that it would be difficult to persuade Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko to agree to a full merger of Belarus and Russia.

"It is very difficult to persuade Lukashenko to change his mind," Mr. Ayatskov said. "He keeps his feet firm on the ground. Of course, he needs to change his perception of Russia and Belarus as separate countries, and of Putin and Lukashenko as the leaders of separate countries. He should not put on airs. I will not be his errand boy just because he has worked there for a long time."

That statement drew a harsh reaction from Mr. Lukashenko who described it as "extravagant" and noted that it might have been intended to put pressure on him ahead of his talks with his Russian counterpart.

Russia`s newspaper Kommersant reported in early September that the Belarusian and Russian leaders had agreed at their August 27 meeting that Moscow would reconsider its choice of ambassador to Belarus. Rumor has it that Vladimir Yegorov, the outgoing governor of Russia`s Kaliningrad exclave, may replace Mr. Ayatskov in the post.