OREANDA-NEWS. Dmitry Peskov, Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, expressed confidence that there are no oligarchs in modern Russia. According to the politician, oligarchs are businessmen who are trying to use their money to influence the country’s policy and have this or that political aspirations.

Earlier, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Russian oligarchs are funding the radical Belarusian opposition.

The Kremlin administration denied the allegations and stated that the election in Belarus is an internal affair of the country. Moscow does not interfere in it and advises others not to do this. “We don’t see anything that would discredit these elections,” Peskov concluded.

The presidential election in Belarus is scheduled for August 9. Signatures in support of their nomination as candidates are collected by 14 applicants. They need to receive at least 100 thousand signatures. Registration of presidential candidates will be held from July 5 to 14; after that the period of election campaigning will begin. At present, five persons have managed to collect the required number of signatures.