Two Lukashenkas at CIS and EurAsEC Summits (Video)

• 10.10.2008, 15:10

At the summits of the leaders of the CIS and EurAsEC countries in Bishkek Belarus is represented by two Lukashenkas, Alyaksandr and Mikalay, the 5-year-son of the Belarusian ruler.

Yesterday Belarusian and Russian TV channels showed how hosts of the summit met the Belarusian leader in the airport of Bishkek. Unexpectedly for many public officials of Kyrgyzstan Alyaksandr Lukashenka left the plane leading a little boy by the hand. The two Lukashenkas marched on the red carpet together to greet the host. It was seen in the footage that the Belarusian leader was not only getting acquainted with the representatives of local authorities, but presented him his younger son Mikalay, Radio Svaboda informs.

So far Lukashenka took his younger son mostly to trips around Belarus (except the trip to Olympic Beijing). It is the first time the boy appeared at international talks. Does the presence of one of the leader’s children meet the requirements of the official protocol at such kind of events?

The former deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, the coordinator of the civil campaign “European Belarus” Andrei Sannikov says that according to the documents even behaviour of chief executives’ wives is strictly regulated, not to speak of children.

“In this case the wife follows at some distance. A separate program is offered for her, and so on. If there is the chief executive of the state, all evens naturally are adopted for him. Wives or, moreover, children, are never present at these stages where a protocol or an official meeting is taking place… But maybe he would be sitting next to his father even at the session of the Security Council, would he? I sympathize with the boy who is simply used,” Sannikov said in an interview to Radio Svaboda.