The bombshell of late November was the postponement of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s visit to Moscow, where he was supposed to have met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The official reason given—that both sides were too busy to meet—is rather dubious. Indeed, Putin’s schedule did not prevent him from going to Yekaterinburg and ushering in the Yeltsin Center or from accepting the newly appointed foreign ambassadors’ credentials in Moscow (Tut.by, November 26). Likewise, a busy schedule did not preclude Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s trip to Minsk. Notably, Aliyev’s country refers to Turkey as “our closest ally” and to Russia …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation