Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated his Belarusian colleague Alexander Lukashenko on his victory in the Belarusian presidential election, the Kremlin press service informed on Monday as reported by TASS.
“I expect that your statesmanship will facilitate the further development of mutually beneficial Russian-Belarusian relations in all spheres, as well as the further enhancement of cooperation within the Union State, the strengthening of integration processes within the Eurasian Economic Union and the CIS and of military-political ties within the Collective Security Treaty Organization,” the telegram published by the Kremlin press service says.
“Without a doubt, this serves the core interests of the brotherly nations of Russia and Belarus,” Putin stated.
On August 9, a presidential election was held in Belarus. According to the preliminary results published on Monday by the Belarusian Election Commission, Lukashenko has won with 80.23% of the vote. Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has come in second with 9.90%. The other three candidates received fewer than 2% of the vote. The voter turnout at the presidential election is reported at 84.23%.
