Speaking at the session "Regions as Locomotives: New Points of Industrial Growth of the Union State," held on the sidelines of the international exhibition "Innoprom. Belarus," Deputy Head of the Brest Oblast Mikhail Batsenko noted that when it comes to the economy, the Brest Oblast currently has three vectors of development with its Russian colleagues.

"First of all, this is participation in import-substitution projects. I can say thank you to our Western partners for pushing us to implement what had not been implemented before in either Russia or Belarus. This is the topic of technological sovereignty and growth in foreign trade volume. Over five years, trade turnover with the Russian Federation has grown 2.1 times. It was 2.3 billion US dollars, and at present we have 4.9 billion US dollars. For the current year 2026, over seven months, the growth rate of mutual trade turnover has added another 19%. If you look at financial instruments and the export component, over five years we have developed very interesting figures. Thus, investments from the Russian Federation totaling 460 million US dollars have come to the Brest Oblast. And enterprises of the Brest Oblast have invested, including through financial instruments, a total of 5.1 billion US dollars in the Russian Federation. That is, at the moment we are supporting the Russian economy more than the Russian economy is investing in us," Mikhail Batsenko informed.