Vladimir Putin visited Minsk on May 24. At the final press conference, he announced the imminent cancellation of roaming between Belarus and Russia.
О таких планах впервые сообщили в 2017 году. С тех пор сроки постоянно переносят. Депутат Сергей Клишевич в эфире «Радио Минск» 27 мая рассказал, кто, по его мнению, в этом виноват:
Such plans were first reported in 2017. But the deadlines have been constantly pushed back since then. On May 27, during a broadcast on Radio Minsk, MP Sergei Klyshevich shared his opinion on who is to blame:
“We should say that some Russian officials immediately began to resist, saying that they cannot do it, they have a private form there, and they cannot force them. You see, they have a different form of interaction. But if they really want to, they will certainly find a way to resolve this issue. The leader of the Russian state, if he promised, then, I believe, it will be 100% fulfilled.”
However, Klishevich's statement contradicts Russian Minister of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media, Maxut Shadaev. During a State Duma meeting in May, Shadaev stated that Belarus is holding up the cancellation.
“We have already reduced the cost of roaming dozens of times, and now we are discussing the complete abolition together with our Belarusian colleagues. Unfortunately, the problem is that this represents significant losses for Belarusian operators. In fact, our operators are ready to accept financial losses from roaming services, but so far the Belarusian operators are considering this issue,” Shadayev said.
In 2019, the media outlet RBC asked the negotiators why they had not yet reached an agreement on the roaming cancellation. The position of Belarusian companies was also named as one of the reasons at that time. The Belarusian side did not want to lower the interconnect rates — the partner operators' payment for traffic passing through foreign communication channels — for all call types, which the Russians insisted on.