OREANDA-NEWS   Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in the Kremlin.

The President of Belarus arrived in Moscow on the eve of the meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State to discuss all the necessary issues in a relaxed atmosphere.

The meeting of the leaders in the Kremlin also began naturally. "Tired President! Where are you looking?!" - Lukashenka addressed the staff of the presidential administration who attended the meeting. "It's fine. We need to work a little bit," Putin responded and jokingly said that he would "go to the cash register at the end of the month for a salary." "It is necessary to earn a salary," the President of the Russian Federation concluded, smiling, and moved on to the agenda of the meeting.

According to Russian statistics, the trade turnover with Belarus has grown to $ 45 billion over the year, according to Belarusian statistics - to almost $ 50 billion.

Putin said that Russia and Belarus have achieved a lot through joint efforts in all areas of cooperation. "This also concerns our cooperation in the international arena, concerns the joint resolution of issues of ensuring the security of our states," he said. At the same time, the President of the Russian Federation stressed that he was particularly pleased to note the results of work in the field of economics. Thus, according to the Russian side, the trade turnover between the two countries has grown to $ 45 billion over the year, and according to the Belarusian side - to $ 50 billion.

Lukashenko, in turn, noted the successes in the implementation of union programs. "Those heights that we could not take for a long time - then you said: if we can't, why are we marking time in one place? Let's do what we can. And we have identified 28 allied programs. Almost 80% of them are implemented. Mostly by governments," Lukashenko said.