OREANDA-NEWS. Russian President Vladimir Putin, commenting on the face-to-face meeting with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, said that they had been discussing “many questions of mutual interest.”

Lukashenko noted that they “reached the depths of hoary antiquity in our life together in one state, discussed many historical dates and moments.” The two presidents also touched upon the issues related to neighboring countries and their policies. “We talked about a lot, reached the present time, and decided to continue our conversation not one on one, but with those who are involved in this process,” Lukashenko concluded.

After that, negotiations were continued in an expanded format. From the side of the Russian Federation there were the deputy head of the presidential administration Dmitry Kozak, the general director of Rosatom Aleksey Likhachov and the ambassador to Belarus Dmitry Mezentsev. Minsk was represented by the first deputy prime minister Dmitry Krutoy, the ambassador to Russia Vladimir Semashko, the minister of energy Viktor Karankevich and the chairman of the Belneftekhim Andrey Rybakov.