Putin agreed to millionaire loan with Lukashenko as pressure increases on Belarus over hijacking

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko have agreed that Minsk will receive a loan of $ 500 million (more than 410 million euros) after a meeting between the two leaders this Friday and in a context of increased pressure on Belarus due to the crisis of the forced landing of a plane in Minsk.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Saturday that the loan was the second tranche of a loan package that had been agreed before the controversial landing. and that Belarus “has not submitted any request for further assistance,” according to TASS.

Likewise, Peskov said that there were two main themes at the meeting, “the further development of trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Belarus, as well as the fight against the pandemic”.

At the meeting held this Friday in the city of Sochi, in the Russian Caucasus, the Belarusian dictator expressed his displeasure at the alleged external attempts to bring his country to the crisis levels recorded after the August 2020 elections.

EU KEEPING PRESSURE

The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, reiterated this Sunday that he wanted to continue to put pressure on Belarus to obtain the release of journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, arrested after the plane landed by Belarusian authorities.

“We will keep the attention and the pressure and we hope this will lead to the release of the two,” he said in statements to German media group Funke, while qualifying the EU’s reaction to this crisis. of “strong and unified”., according to DPA.

Sassoli proposed this week that airports in European Union member states be filled with photos of the journalist following the leaders’ agreement to advance sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s regime and limit the use of space Belarusian aerial.

For its part, the European Commission presented on Friday a support plan for the democratic transition in Belarus, a proposal with which it wants to mobilize up to $ 3 billion in aid but which will only be activated if the country advances on the democratic way.

The proposal is in line with the agreement of the leaders of the Twenty-Seven last fall on a package of support for the Belarusian opposition and its struggle for democracy in the country.

(With information from Europa Press)

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