Russian authorities recommended to say Belarus, not Byelorussia

• 27.11.2009, 18:57

Such a decision has been adopted at the joint session of the board of the ministries of justice of Belarus and Russia on Thursday in Minsk.

“Such a decision was not timed to any date or event. It is a regular situation, or rather a call of the times. You could observe how some Russian mass media use the wrong name of our country,” Belarusian Justice Minister Viktar Halavanau said, Interfax reports.

As said by the Belarusian Minister, following the results of the board session, all judicial bodies of Russia would be instructed to prepare a letter to all ministries and agencies of the Russian Federation that “the Republic of Belarus” should be used in official documents.

“Such a letter will be sent to mass media as well,” Halavanau said.

Alexander Konovalov, Russian Minister of Justice, has also noted that the issue of usage of the official name of the Republic of Belarus is not related to some contempt to the sister nation. It is rather a historical habit, and not a form of great-power chauvinism”, Konovalov said.

He added that historical habit plays its role in usage of “Moldavia”, “Kirgizia” instead of Moldova, Kyrgyzstan as well.

“However, the use of unofficial name of the country is unacceptable in the work of officials and in official documents,” he said.

He underlined that Russian Ministry of Justice is set to carry out an expertise of documents of the Russian Federation concerning the use of the official name of the Republic of Belarus.