Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov called the last meeting of Russian leader Vladimir Putin with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko rich and meaningful.
The heads of state held informal talks in Sochi on Saturday, May 29. In particular, Lukashenko told Putin in detail about the situation with the emergency landing of the Ryanair plane at the Minsk airport, which occurred on May 23.
"Lukashenko informed his Russian counterpart in detail about what happened to the Ryanair plane. At the initiative of the President of Russia, the topic of a Russian citizen who was detained, who is now in a pre-trial detention center, was raised, " Peskov told reporters.
According to the press secretary, the Russian Foreign Ministry was instructed to closely monitor the fate of the case of the Russian citizen. Also during the meeting, Vladimir Putin indicated that the situation with the plane requires trials without emotions, and the hasty conclusions of the West indicate a reluctance to clarify the circumstances of the incident.
"The cascade of hasty emotions that was made by European capitals rather suggests that the approach is not based on an attempt to really clarify the circumstances, it is based solely on emotions," Peskov said.
At the same time, Peskov added that he could not give details about the documents that Lukashenko presented to Putin about the plane.
The heads of state also instructed the transport ministries of the two countries to organize "all aspects" of air communication, taking into account the upcoming holiday period and the large number of Belarusian citizens who want to come to the Black Sea coast of Russia.
"The issues of air traffic management were discussed, taking into account the decision of the European authorities, many airlines that stopped flying through the airspace of [Belarus], taking into account the fact that Belavia is no longer an unwanted guest in European cities," Peskov said.
In addition, the issues of further development of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, as well as the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, were discussed. According to Peskov, on Friday there were official talks of the leaders, and on Saturday-the informal part.
The day before, on May 28, Putin and Lukashenko also held talks in Sochi. The leaders talked for five hours and 15 minutes.
On May 24, at the EU summit, it was decided to ban Belarusian airlines from flying to the European Union after the incident with the Ryanair plane. At the same time, international carriers refused to use the airspace of Belarus.
In turn, the Belarusian company "Belavia" also announced the cancellation of flights to a number of countries.
