Russian Ambassador works in “Belarus”, not ‘Byelorussia’

Russian Ambassador to Belarus Alexander Surikov has expressed his opinion about the problems of naming our country in Russian. Many Russian mass media keep using Belarus’ Soviet name – Byelorussia.

“I wouldn’t like to get into these linguistic arguments,” the diplomat told Belarus 1. “I only know that I am an ambassador in a sovereign state. According o the Constitution, the country’s name is Belarus.”

Alexander Surikov also commented on the rumours about the Russian language being oppressed in Belarus. “Who could even think about it? Russian is a state language here,” BELTA quotes the diplomat.