Lavrov not to have tete-a-tete talk with Lukashenka

Sergei Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russia, has arrived to Minsk for participation in the meeting of foreign ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

The ministers are to consider the plan of the CSTO member states’ consultations on the issues of foreign policy, security and defence in the second half of 2011 – the first half of 2012. The session is to take place in the National Library.

After the session ministers and Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Nikolai Bordyuzha, are to meet with Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Earlier the latter criticized Lavrov’s statements on human rights violations in Belarus:

“Pressure from all directions is being applied on us. The leadership of the Russian Federation has become too democratic all of a sudden. I hear statements of Lavrov on respecting human rights or democracy. It makes me wonder: look who's talking…”