BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/06/2008

Russian President Medevdev To Travel To Belarus On June 22

MOSCOW (AFP)--Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will attend a ceremony in Belarus on June 22 marking the 67th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin said in a statement Tuesday.

Medvedev, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and other heads of state "agreed on a meeting on June 22 in Brest (Belarus), on the memorial day marked in the two countries", the Kremlin said in a statement.

Once close relations between the two countries have chilled recently, as the Belarus complained of the rising price of Russia's gas and oil exports. A once- mulled union between the two states, first mooted in 1997, has never been signed.

The two presidents crossed paths last week at a summit for the Commonwealth of Independent States in St. Petersburg, but didn't have bilateral talks.

Lukashenko has in the past been criticized by the West as "the last dictator of Europe" for his authoritarian regime and poor human rights record.

Source:

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20080610%5cACQDJON200806101251DOWJONESDJONLINE000470.htm&&mypage=newsheadlines&title=Russian%20President%20Medevdev%20To%20Travel%20To%20Belarus%20On%20June%2022

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