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Putin likely to visit Belarus on first trip as president

 

Vladimir Putin is most likely to choose Belarus as the first foreign country that he will visit since returning to the post of Russian president, Russian media reported on Monday with reference to government sources.

The newspaper Kommersant said that Mr. Putin would not attend a May 18-19 G8 summit in the United States and recalled that the Kremlin had said that Mr. Putin's first foreign trip in the capacity of president would be to an "ex-Soviet state."

The paper suggested that Mr. Putin, 59, would visit Belarus before traveling to Kazakhstan on his way to a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in China in early June.

Another influential Russian newspaper, Izvestia, said that Mr. Putin was still deciding whether to visit Belarus or Kazakhstan first but was likely to choose the former as his first foreign destination.

Mr. Putin's visit is likely to take place after May 15 summits of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Collective Security Treaty Organization in Moscow and before a Russia-European Union summit due to be held in St.Petersburg on June 3 and 4, the paper said with reference to a source close to Russia's Presidential Administration.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for Mr. Putin, refused to comment on the report.

Mr. Putin placed Belarus on a list of Russia's key foreign-policy priorities that he approved by his directive on May 7 after being inaugurated for the third time as president of the Russian Federation.

The document identifies as another priority deeper integration within the Customs Union and Common Economic Zone of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as the creation by the three states of the Eurasian Economic Union, which it says would be open to other post-Soviet states.

Delivering his annual address to the legislature and the nation on May 8, Alyaksandr Lukashenka shrugged off fears that Mr. Putin would put Belarus under strong pressure to make the country more dependent on Moscow.

“Firstly, Putin doesn't have adequate resources. Secondly, this will make him his own enemy. Russia will never try to do this,” Mr. Lukashenka stressed. //BelaPAN