Vladimir Putin plans to meet with Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Minsk on March 15, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian prime minister, told reporters in Moscow on Monday.
Such a meeting has been scheduled and will be held like previous meetings during the Russian prime minister’s visits to Belarus, Mr. Peskov said.
Mr. Putin will arrive in Minsk to take part in a session of the Council of Ministers of the Belarusian-Russian Union State and a session of the Interstate Council of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan at the level of the prime ministers.
This will be the first meeting of Messrs. Putin and Lukashenka since a presidential election in Belarus in December 2010, which ended with arrests of more than 600 people, including Russian citizens, as a result of street protests in Minsk, said Russia’s news agency RIA Novosti.
While speaking to reporters on December 29, Mr. Putin declined to comment on the protests, noting that one should respect the choice of the Belarusian people, RIA Novosti said.
