BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

13/12/2007

Preview: Preparations intense ahead of Putin visit to Belarus

Minsk - Preparations were intensifying on Thursday in Belarus ahead of a critical visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader was scheduled to arrive in the former Soviet republic on Friday for a two-day visit.

Road crews and snow-clearing equipment were out in full force in the Belarusian capital on Thursday, and government agencies including schools received instructions from the central government to pay "special attention" towards building appearance.

The Belarusian traffic police directorate issued a warning to motorists that roads within central Minsk would be sealed off periodically, and without warning, as Putin's motorcade moves through the city.

Belarusian paramilitary police late Wednesday arrested some 40 members of an anti-government group in Minsk's central October Square, on charges of participating in an illegal public gathering.

The marchers, members of the youth-based Za Svobodu! (For Freedom!), and the opposition Belarusian Peoples' Front, had been demonstrating against widely-rumoured plans for the signing of a "Constitutional Act" between Moscow and Minsk aimed at eventually rejoining the two former Soviet republics.

The demonstrators chanted "Long Live Belarus!" and "No Unions with Imperial Russia!" for a bit less than an hour, before being taking into custody.

Putin and Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko, often in conflict in recent years, were according to independent Belarusian media likely to discuss energy relations between the two countries, as well as the Act of Constitution, which if signed could kick-start long-stalled plans for Belarus' return to Russian sovereignty.

An oil pricing dispute between the two went critical last December, with Russia cutting off oil supplies to Belarus.

The move sparked price spikes in east and central Europe, as those regions receive Russian oil imports primarily via pipelines crossing Belarus.

Common defence planning was another potential discussion area, as Russia maintains in Belarus early-warning radars aimed at NATO.

After the oil price hikes Lukashenko threatened to raise rental costs to Russia for operating the radar sites.

Russia would in that case shut down the Belarusian base and build new ones in Kaliningrad and west Russia, Russian foreign ministry officials said at the time.

Source:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/158033.html

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