Government has prepared an Integration Programme with Russia and sectoral roadmaps for the unification of framework conditions

The government is ready to present an Integration Programme with Russia. Belarus’ expectations from the Integration Programme speak for themselves: she started looking for alternative oil supplies and has stepped up activity in all foreign economic policy directions.

On August 23^rd, Prime Minister Rumas reported to Lukashenka about the progress made in elaborating an integration programme with Russia. PM Rumas said that on August 27^th, the government would submit to Lukashenka a draft Integration Programme with Russia, which would be published after the approval.

According to Rumas, the programme does not address political issues; it is based on the principle “two states – one market”, which ensures equal conditions for economic players. It includes a plan for the implementation of 28 roadmaps for synchronizing framework conditions in economic segments (tax, budget, credit, energy, etc.). In the best-case scenario, the draft Programme and its roadmaps will be approved by both presidents at the supreme council meeting of the Union State in late 2019, however, their implementation would take another two to five years.

Transneft has reported to Medvedev that the Friendship pollution situation has been resolved. In order to prevent similar incidents in the future, Transneft aims to introduce its operational management at oil reception / delivery points and a unified certification system for oil quality assessment laboratories. That is, the incident at the Druzhba pipeline has revealed that the oil transit monopoly was selling its services without any quality assurances.