OREANDA-NEWS. On 13 April 2009 was announced, that President Alexander Lukashenko believes Belarus should not obsess over exports to Russia; he is indignant that the top level agreements with Russia meet obstacles at lower levels, which is a major barrier to Union State trade, the press service of the president reported following Lukashenko’s visit to the Gomel Region.

“Our officials should stop “standing on their knees” in Russian administrations,” Lukashenko said. “If they don’t let us into their markets, we must look for other vectors for our exports,” he said.

“Life prompts us to diversify exports. Our products boast a high quality, and they are competitive enough. We will always remain on the Russian market, but we also must enter other markets,” Lukashenko said, adding that Belarusian commodities were in demand in all regions of the world.

“Russia’s attitude is not quite respectable, and I’m not afraid to talk about it,” Lukashenko said.

“We agreed that we would pay USD 150 [per 1,000 cubic meters] for natural gas. Then other people come here and say the price would get higher. The things we manage to agree never work out for us,” Lukashenko said.

“Russia keeps telling us to cede our plants, etc., but we will not be selling anything cheap during the crisis,” Lukashenko said.

He also said domestic farms must get enough machines for the sowing campaign.

This year it is planned to supply over 3,500 new machines to farms.

“We must shift our support to mechanical engineering – vehicles, tractors,” Lukashenko said, quoted by his press service. “We must meet the domestic requirement.”

According to the president, producers must adjust their production targets and change to the commodities that are currently in demand, for instance, to switch from trucks to buses.