Putin Backs Belarus Ally With Cash, Support at Crisis Talks

(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Belarus’s beleaguered ruler Alexander Lukashenko a warm welcome and a $1.5 billion loan at the start of talks Monday, offering his full backing against month-long opposition protests over disputed elections.

“We consider Belarus our closest ally and, as I’ve told you repeatedly in phone talks, we will fulfill all our obligations,” said Putin, who congratulated Lukashenko again on his re-election and wished him success.

A subdued-looking Lukashenko thanked Putin for his support. “These events have shown that we need to stick closer to our elder brother,” he said, at their first face-to-face meeting since the political crisis began.

The Belarusian currency has come under pressure amid the crisis, declining more than 8% in the past three months. At “this difficult moment” for Belarus, Russia will provide the $1.5 billion in credit and “I hope this will have an appropriate impact on the financial markets,” Putin said.

The talks in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi came a day after tens of thousands rallied against Lukashenko in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, for the fifth Sunday in a row, defying riot police and masked men without insignia who tried violently to break up protests. Police detained 774 people, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

Putin is determined that protesters won’t topple Lukashenko, who’s ruled for 26 years, even as Moscow doesn’t trust him and will encourage steps toward an eventual succession, five people close to the Kremlin said, asking not to be identified discussing internal policy.

The two leaders spoke one-on-one for nearly four hours, focusing on efforts to boost economic ties, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call. Part of the new $1.5 billion loan will go to refinance existing debts, he said, declining to provide details. Belarus had requested $1 billion in debt restructuring.

“This loan is going not to Lukashenko but to Belarus, our great ally, a fraternal country,” he said. “In no way should it be seen as interference in the internal affairs of another country.”

Putin also endorsed Lukashenko’s plan to begin constitutional reform, Peskov said. The Belarusian opposition has denounced that initiative as inadequate.

In a phone call with Putin on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron underscored the need for a political solution in Belarus “without external interference,” the Elysee said in a statement. Putin confirmed Russia’s opposition to any foreign meddling in Belarus, according to a Kremlin statement.

While the opposition movement has been careful to emphasize it’s not anti-Russian, Putin has offered a police force if necessary to help Lukashenko quell the unrest, dispatched media workers to replace striking journalists in Minsk and begun talks to restructure Belarus’s debt.

The opposition that united behind Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who says she won the election and is now in exile in Lithuania, wants Lukashenko to begin talks on handing over power. He has rejected any compromise with the protesters.

The crisis engulfing Moscow’s closest partner echoes revolts that swept away pro-Kremlin leaders in Ukraine and Armenia since 2014, and comes weeks after Putin changed Russia’s constitution to allow him to extend his two-decade rule, potentially to 2036.

The European Union and the U.S. have condemned the repression and rejected the election result, but have only threatened sanctions so far.

Lukashenko’s rapprochement with Putin comes after their ties grew strained last year as Russia pushed for deeper economic and political integration.

After attacking Russia during the election, his tilt back toward Moscow has come as Belarusian security forces have pushed out of the country or jailed almost all senior opposition figures while using brutal tactics against protesters.

Tsikhanouskaya offered a warning to Putin in a statement Monday before the talks began, saying that “whatever you agree on during the meeting in Sochi will not have legal force” because it would be rejected by the opposition once it came to power.

“I regret that you decided to conduct a dialog with the usurper and not with the Belarusian people,” she said.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.