Russian finance minister offended by Lukashenka's statement

Russian finance minister Andrei Kudrin described as unjustified the statements of Alexander Lukashenka who was outraged that Kudrin spoke out about the imminent bankruptcy of Belarus.  The Russian minister was especially offended to be compared by Alexander Lukashenk with the local opposition. Kudrin reminded that over the past one year and a half Russia had issued loans to Belarus worth of nearly $3 billion on conditions of a deficit-free budget, the freezing of wages, tariff growth and devaluation.

"When we are saying that certain measures should be continued, suddenly this causes such an unexpected reaction. We can't understand this", Belapan quotes Andrei Kudrin as saying. The Russian minister reckons that assissting the Belarusian economy in this situation can turn out to be "resultless and inefficient".