Putin congratulates Lukashenko on victory in Belarusian presidential election
Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated his Belarusian colleague Alexander Lukashenko on his victory in Sunday's presidential election, TASS reported on Monday, citing the Kremlin press service.
"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 message 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%.