MOSCOW. Dec 26 (Interfax) - The Kremlin confirmed that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will not attend the EAEU and CSTO summits in St. Petersburg on Monday and said it is confident that it will not reflect on the agenda of he summits.
Russian presidential press officer Dmitry Peskov, responding to a question from journalists, called the remark that Alexander Lukashenko "is ignoring this event" inappropriate.
"I don't think the word 'ignore' is appropriate here," Peskov said.
"Our Belarusian colleagues said President Lukashenko cannot attend these summits. I think it would be incorrect for us to speak about the reasons, it should be done by the Belarusian president's press service," Peskov said.
Peskov said he is confident that "the absence of the president of Belarus de facto will not hinder the discussion of substantive issues associated with integration."
"All documents that will be signed today were previously approved by our Belarusian partners and the signed documents will be sent to Minsk so that Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] can sign them there," Peskov said.