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Marina Vasilevskaya became the first Belarusian citizen to reach outer space.

The meeting was held in the Kremlin’s Representative Office.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Lukashenko, Mr Novitsky, Ms Vasilevskaya,

Today is a holiday, Cosmonautics Day. It is a day when we celebrate the achievements of the Soviet Union, which means our common achievements, the achievements of all the republics of the former Soviet Union. We accomplished a lot together back then. Now, together with Belarus, we continue this joint work. The fact that the first Belarusian cosmonaut went into space is only an external sign of our joint activities, although, of course, these activity are not limited to this flight.

Mr Lukashenko and I have just discussed in detail – and we touched upon these subjects before – what exactly and what areas of space exploration our cooperation can cover.

It is impossible to be effective in dealing with about any task on Earth without space. That includes improving the defence capability, the latest innovative materials, medicines, logistics, or transport. In general, wherever you look, there are ways to use space technology.

Therefore, this is an important topic, and we are focusing and will continue to focus on it. We have a programme in Russia to 2030 and another one to 2036. It has been drafted, and we keep working on it. Clearly, there is never enough money, but there is some progress there nonetheless.

You know that the Angara-A5, our new heavy carrier rocket has been launched. This is also a good step forward. It was launched from our new spaceport – the Vostochny Cosmodrome. We will use this carrier rocket to bring to space everything necessary for creating a Russian orbital station. I hope we will continue this cooperation. We have just discussed this with the President. I am sure this will be the case.

I would like to wish you a happy holiday – you and, as they say in such cases, through you all those who work in the industry – engineers, designers, workers, cosmonauts, medics and so on and to wish all of your further success.

President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko: Mr Putin, first, thank you for inviting us. I was more involved in this flight. This is routine for you but big news for us, because our first female cosmonaut, the first cosmonaut of independent Belarus was on this flight. And Oleg Novitsky is also ours. He was born near Minsk, in the home town of his parents. His mother lives there and we met recently. This is symbolic.

Therefore, I am very grateful to you for this flight. Our presence here is not just a tribute. If you had not given the go-ahead and agreed then, this flight would not have taken place. We discussed this issue for a long time and I recall how I was asked jokingly: “So, let’s fly?” I said, “Mr Putin but we have no money!” He said: “We will find the money to make this flight happen.”

Thank you for Marina and thank you for Oleg’s appointment as the commander of this flight. This is the expression of our unity. He was born in Belarus, served in the Soviet Union, was a test pilot and became a cosmonaut in Russia. Is it your third flight?

Oleg Novitsky: The fourth one.

Alexander Lukashenko: The fourth flight. And our first cosmonaut in Belarus. I know that it is difficult for them now. They have not yet recovered. But this is also a kind of recovery.

Oleg Novitsky: Of course.

Alexander Lukashenko: So, I also want to join the words of the Russian President and congratulate, through you, all cosmonauts. I visited the Cosmonaut Training Centre several times. I went to the centre in Russia and abroad, to Chinese centres. So I studied cosmonautics quite well. I studied the rocket you flew on. I have been to Baikonur and saw not only Buran but also the launch pads, including yours, the one from which you went to space. So, I know this very well.

Many people say: well, what's the big deal, the Belarusians are here symbolically. No, not symbolically, we are working very seriously on joint programmes of Belarus and Russia. We make satellite programmes together, we have preserved satellite manufacturing plants from the Soviet times, we work together with the Russians. Manned flights are now underway. I persuaded the President of Russia that we will continue to work together, he supported me yesterday.

Vladimir Putin: The optics is on you.

Alexander Lukashenko: Yes, there is no question about it. By the way, our optics is as good as that in the West.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, it is good.

Alexander Lukashenko: That is why we agreed that we will work together, including our… Ours, yours – these are our common people, we will fly into space, we will work at the Training Centre and other places where our pilots are being trained.

I welcome you on your return back to the Earth. It was not easy for us, especially for me. When the rocket didn't launch immediately, everything collapsed in me. I thought it was a disaster.

Oleg Novitsky: But the equipment did not let us down.

Alexander Lukashenko: It didn’t, well done, electronics. Everything is fine here, everything worked. A day later, as Yury Borisov said, you launched. You came back on time, you conducted the necessary experiments.

We must make Mr Putin promise, and then everything will work. So he promised, I think, that we will see joint flights of Russians and Belarusians more than once. But the key is that he mentioned that there would be a space station of our own, that Angara will still lift the equipment there. We are ready to collaborate as much as we can to create this space station and work together.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Novitsky, please.

Oleg Novitsky: For my part, I would also like to thank you for this joint project. I realise that we had a great responsibility, and it was a great pleasure and a delight to take part in it. Since I really consider myself a person of the Soviet Union, I cannot separate our states in any way. And I greatly appreciate the fact that we are working together in this way, just working, based on some human relations.

That is why I promised the President of Belarus that I will do my best in any situation. Nevertheless, we prepared very well with Marina, she was very actively involved in the preparation, she was not a ”burden“ at the ISS in any way, as one could expect from a short flight. She worked quite independently and very quickly joined the general routine of the station’s operation.

All instructors and tutors in the Training Centre agree that it is amazing but both young women approached training very seriously. So they were not just like space tourists that come to us – they pay for their flight and not much is expected from them. However, in this case, the training was very serious and I believe Marina has justified all hopes that were pegged on her.

So, many thanks for the warm words and congratulations. I would like to also congratulate you on this wonderful holiday. You are giving us an opportunity to work in orbit. I realise how much the state is paying for us and that probably manned flights do not bring any direct profits but nonetheless we support the endevours made before us. It is very gratifying that our technology is the most reliable. Alexei Ovchinin’s emergency launch also confirmed this. When the rocket exploded underneath him, the automation cancelled the engines before the start. This is why Marina’s pulse was 66 beats per minute and nobody was nervous. Tracy [Dyson] was also calm.

Our equipment does not let us down. It is very reliable. Maybe, it does not look as modern as that of our partners but we have manual modes. We can fully operate the ship on our own in the event of any failure in the multistage redundancy system and this system ensures the viability of the crew in any conditions and hence guarantees the fulfilment of the programme.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

Ms Vasilevskaya, go ahead.

Marina Vasilevskaya: Mr President of Russia, Mr President of Belarus,

It is a great honour for me to be here and to meet you. Of course, I would like to express my enormous gratitude for this joint project, for the grandiose project for our country.

I am very happy to be the first Belarusian cosmonaut of sovereign Belarus. For my part, I tried to do all I could to fulfil this programme by 100 percent or even more because a citizen of the Republic of Belarus going to space is an outstanding event for our country. I hope it has already produced a great contribution. I would like to continue the development of this industry.

As a native of Belarus who has been to space, I would like to thank you for opening this door for us. I am happy and glad and I am proud that this project has been carried out.

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

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