"Everything was taken away": Lukashenko before meeting with Putin joked about the RF's gold and currency reserve
On Wednesday, April 5, the politician arrived in the Russian Federation, where he was going to hold personal talks with Vladimir Putin. He was not met personally not by the Russian president, but by his representatives. Going down the ladder, Alexander Lukashenko held one hand for the handrails, and then decided to give a joke about gold reserves that were actually absent. "That's why we don't have gold - everything was taken away," says Alexander Lukashenko.
Obviously, he referred to the RF's gold and foreign exchange reserves, most of which were frozen because of international sanctions. In addition, the data of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation for April 5 shows that the Kremlin was forced to sell 7. 47 billion of Chinese yuan and 11. 8 tons of gold for a total amount of 137 billion rubles. All in order to finance budget deficits.
Russian Presidential President Dmitry Peskov noted that during the negotiations of politics intends to discuss the peaceful proposal of Belarus for Ukraine. They want to exchange views on how the conflict can be resolved. Last week, Alexander Lukashenko urged to freeze the active phase of battles, limit the movement of military equipment on both sides, and immediately to start peace talks. On April 5, analysts from ISW noted that in fact Alexander Lukashenko was summoned to Moscow on the "carpet".