English

Putin does not mind handing over land in Kaliningrad exclave to Belarus, Lukashenka says

Alyaksandr Lukashenka told Russian journalists in Minsk on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not mind handing over idle land in the Kaliningrad exclave to Belarusian farmers.

"I do not aspire to take away Kaliningrad tomorrow, but I would gladly do this if I could," Mr. Lukashenka told a group of Russian provincial journalists. "I've recently visited Kaliningrad with Putin. We were flying in a helicopter. I saw that you do not plow the lands. These lands used to be the best ones in the Soviet Union, this was a flourishing province. I [said] to Vladimir Vladimirovich, 'Give me these lands.' He [said], 'I agree.' No need to transfer ownership of them to us. We'd simply farm them."

Mr. Lukashenka said that residents of the Hrodna region would quickly plow the farmlands and even build a market-milk dairy there.

Speaking about a decision by Gennady Onishchenko, head of Russia’s Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring Service (Rosselkhoznadzor), to ban dairy imports from Lithuania, apparently in response to a reported threat by the Lithuanian foreign minister to block transport links between Russia and the Kaliningrad exclave, Mr. Lukashenka said that although Mr. Onishchenko was rightly described as a "political tool" in the hands of the Kremlin, "the Lithuanians will be punched in the face if they behave like that." //BelaPAN