Mishustin: Belarus, Russia need unity as never before

“Amid the current external conditions our unity is needed as never before. Russia and Belarus jointly oppose the sanctions war, illegal trade and economic restrictions, powerful information pressure from the collective West,” Mikhail Mishustin said.

According to him, the answer to such challenges should be the acceleration of integration processes in the Union State, the creation of additional opportunities for citizens of Belarus and Russia, especially for young people. “We need to develop a single barrier-free social, economic, cultural and humanitarian space. These are the instructions our presidents gave us,” the Russian head of government said.

He named deepening ties in science and education among the priorities. “It is important to increase the attractiveness of getting education in Russian colleges and universities for Belarusian applicants and vice versa. We have already made a number of significant decisions. When young people from fraternal Belarus enter Russian educational institutions, the results of Olympiads, as well as centralized testing are taken into account. Belarus' centralized testing is an analog of our unified state exam. We have increased the government quota up to 1,300 places for the current academic year. The Belarusian-Russian University in Mogilev has been successfully operating. There are also plans to expand the network of branches of our higher educational institutions in the country and to open an educational cluster of the Union State,” Mikhail Mishustin said.

According to him, the citizens of the two countries are interested in new promising initiatives, which has been confirmed by the Congress of Young Scientists of Belarus and Russia held at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in March 2023.

The Russian prime minister emphasized the strengthening of cultural ties as another important area. “The residents of the Union State should have an opportunity to get familiar with artists' works, dramatic art, attend concerts and exhibitions, read good literature. For this purpose, it is necessary to increase interaction between our theaters, museums, libraries, archives, to develop touring projects. It is of crucial importance to regions and cities in such work, to use the potential of the Forum of Regions,” Mikhail Mishustin stressed.

The strategic session on developing humanitarian cooperation with Belarus was attended by members of the Russian government and heads of Russian federal agencies in charge of humanitarian issues, as well as Belarus' Ambassador to Russia Dmitry Krutoi and Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Mikhail Myasnikovich.