BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/04/2006

Lukashenko rumours denied

Belarussian officials scrambled to quash rumours that President Lukashenko is suffering a severe bout of depression after he cancelled a meeting with President Putin in Moscow yesterday.

Gennady Nevyglas, the chief of the Belarussian President's Administration, said that Mr Lukashenko was in such rude health that he had even played - and won - a game of ice hockey over the weekend. He had also rearranged his inauguration for Saturday after postponing it from last Friday.

But Mr Nevyglas did not explain why Mr Lukashenko, 51, had not appeared on television since last Tuesday and had cancelled his meeting with Mr Putin.

The Kremlin said that Mr Lukashenko had been sche-duled to visit Moscow to mark the tenth anniversary of a loose alliance between Russia and Belarus. Mr Lukashenko has been in seen in public only once since March 20, the day after he won a third term in an election that was condemned as rigged. State television showed him chairing a meeting last Tuesday that appeared to have been filmed at his country residence. He looked strained.

Source:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2117053,00.html