NTV interviews Lukashenka, his press secretary and cook (full video)

Russian journalist Vadim Tokmenyov has interviewed the Belarusian President. It was shown in the programme Central Television on NTV yesterday. The video was dedicated to the recent negotiations of the German, French, Ukrainian and Russian leaders in Minsk.

Vladimir Putin was worried about the possibility of organizing the meeting in Minsk on time, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said. Lukashenka replied: “Come on, calm down! You know, we can do everything in Belarus. Everything will be organized at top level.” Lukashenka phoned Putin on the day of the meeting and said that everything was ready (“even the pavements had been repaired”). He also noted that there were rumours on the Internet that the Russian President may refuse to visit the Belarusian capital.

"I have always wanted to say: ‘Guys, let us three gather and reach an agreement without any intermediaries, let us stop this war if we do want to stop it.’” Lukashenka confessed to NTV: “Many people fought for their land’ in Donets Basin.” He also mentioned leaders of the self-declared ‘DPR’ and ‘LPR’ Zakharchenko and Plotnitski: “No matter how we treat them but… what if they really are putting their hearts into it?”

Russian journalists also talked to Lukashenka’s press secretary Natallya Esmant and called her a beauty. She described how the state leaders ‘had found’ the negotiations room in the Independence Palace. Experienced representative of the state bodies Alyaksandr Radzkou said that the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia stayed without their interpreters for a while but still managed to communicate. “Merkel has a good command of Russian” and Putin, Hollande and Poroshenko can speak English, he added.

NTV also talked to interpreters of the Belarusian President’s Administration Dzmitry Tupik (he listened to Hollande) and Syarhei (he listened to Merkel). The German and French leaders did not exercise pressure on Poroshenko and Putin and were just intermediaries, the interpreters said.

Tokmenyov also talked to Lukashenka’s personal cook Mihail and his assistant Volha who was the only person ‘who could enter all the secret rooms where the four leaders were negotiating’. François Hollande liked Belarusian potato pancakes with sour cream and German Chancellor Angela Merkel liked lard. Alcohol was also served although the leaders, especially Poroshenko, were against it, waitress Volha said.

Video from Msink, see 14m 30s.

Photo: BELTA