The Belarusian Foreign Ministry accused the Russian Ambassador in Minsk, Mikhail Babich, of destroying relations between the two countries, as stated in a statement on the Foreign Ministry website. According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, certain external forces have been trying to worsen relations between Moscow and Minsk for a long time. “So: what these external forces have failed to do over the past few decades, Mr. Babich has successfully and effectively accomplished in just a few months,” the statement says.

This reaction followed Babich’s commentary on the statement of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko about the final cost of the BelNPP. In his annual address to the people and parliament, Lukashenko said that the cost of building the country's first nuclear power plant could be less than $7 billion instead of the planned $10 billion. He clarified that he had discussed this issue with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Initially, the amount was voiced in a question to the president from Belarusian MP Anna Kanopatskaya, who referred to Babich’s alleged statement that Russia would reduce the price of construction.

Babich later stated that Lukashenko was misled about the sale price of the BelNPP; Russia never named it. Press Secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Anatoly Glaz, in turn, suggested that Babich “does not see any difference” between the Russian federal district and an independent state. Until August 2018, Babich worked as presidential plenipotentiary envoy in the Volga Federal District.

Belarus is building a nuclear power plant near the city of Ostrovets in the Grodno region according to the Russian VVER-1200 project. The nuclear power plant will consist of two power units with a capacity of 1200 MW each. The launch of the first power unit is scheduled for November 2019, the second - for 2020. The general contractor for the construction of the nuclear power plant is Atomstroyexport (a Rosatom structure).

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry accused the Russian ambassador of destroying relations between Moscow and Minsk