Putin ‘not scheduled’ to meet Lukashenko during visit to Belarus | Top Russian news and analysis online | ‘RIA Novosti’ newswire: “Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not plan to hold talks with Alexander Lukashenko during his visit to Belarus, the Russian government said on Tuesday, denying speculation the Belarusian president had gone to Venezuela to avoid a meeting.
‘The meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during [Putin’s] visit to Belarus was not scheduled because the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State will be held in Brest, not in Minsk,’ the statement said.”