Russian Audit Chamber suggests reviewing economic relations with Belarus

Russia's Audit Chamber has suggested reviewing all economy agreements between Belarus and Russia, Andrei Kokoshin, head of the standing committee on CIS affairs in the State Duma (Russia's lower parliamentary house), said on Thursday.

Sergei Stepashin, head of the Audit Chamber, reportedly put forward the proposal during a closed-door meeting of the Council of the State Duma that focused on relations between the two countries.

“I think that we will support this proposal,” Russian media outlets quoted Mr. Kokoshin as saying. “The need for deeper economic integration is evident. Not all bilateral agreements work. They need to be amended.”

“We should start creating Russian-Belarusian transnational corporations that would be really efficient and competitive... And we have enough grounds for proposing this to our Belarusian friends amid quite a large-scale support that is continued to be provided to the Belarusian economy... in the form of that reduced energy price that will be applied to Belarus for a series of years to come,” he stressed.

The MP suggested studying also the implementation of bilateral agreements on the equal rights of the Belarusian and Russian nationals, defense, cultural matters and education. He said that the State Duma considered asking the Russian and Belarusian media to cover “issues concerning the deep historical roots of our brotherly nations and special relations with Belarus in a proper manner.”

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