Russian media: “Lukashenka is not of interest”

An article under this title was published today in Russian newspaper “Vedomosti.” The case is in the informal CIS summit, where Dmitry Medvedev is to have bilateral meetings with his colleagues.

On Thursday Dmitry Medvedev is to visit Berlin On Thursday, and he is to spend Friday and Saturday at the informal CIS summit in the frames of the XII St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

The economic themes wil be highlighted, president’s aide Sergei Prikhodko said. All 11 CIS leaders are to come. Medvedev is scheduled to meet with all of them except for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Medvedev had a meeting with Nazarbayev on 22 May during his visit to Astana. A question on a meeting with Lukashenka is being considered, a source from the Kremlin said: in any case the presidents will have a conversation at the session and during the dinner. Moreover, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with Lukashenka on 23 May.

Lukashenka is trying to establish contacts with the Kremlin administration, Minsk politologist Yaraslau Ramanchuk is sure, but Moscow has thrown him into a dilemma: either he imposes common ruble or gas prices will grow from 2009, and conditions of oil delivering will be severed.

Medvedev will have the most difficult talks with Ukrainian and Georgian leaders, politologist Fedor Lukyanov thinks. Medvedev sounded the keynote for a conversation with Kyiv. In late May, after Kyiv’s statements on unwillingness to prolong presence of Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol, the Russian president phoned to president Viktor Yushchenko and cautioned him against unilateral decisions. According to Aleksandr Chaly, Deputy Head of Ukrainian Pesident's Secretariat, an issue of Ukraine’s NATO entry will be discussed besides the fleet.

The Kremlin expects the talks with Georgian President Mikhael Saakashvili to be “serious, but calm,” a source from the Kremlin says. Saakashvili said he worried about the situation in Abkhazia.

A conflict with Georgia is dangerous , but not deathful, while problems with Ukraine are more large-scale, because they are caused by the attempts of Kyiv to change the geopolitical orientation, Lukyanov concluded.

Medvedev is to discuss Pridnestrovyewith Moldavian President Vladimir Voronin, and situation in Caucasus and Nagorno-Karabakh with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Though the issue of Karabakh won’t be a central theme in the talks with Armenian leader Serzh Sarkisian, a Kremlin official says.

The talks with the Turkmenian President will be devoted to gas, politologist Andrei Grozin suggests. Agreements on gas with Turkmenistan weren’t failed, a source from the Kremlin emphasised. But Medvedev will have to discuss from what reserves the Turkmens will provide enhanced export commitments, Grozin added.