Today the Polotsk town court considered the lawsuit, filed against the prominent human rights advocate and journalist Valery Schukin for alleged hooliganism. The man is indicted for the violation of Article 156 of the Penal Code “On administrative misdemeanors”.

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Yesterday Russia’s Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov landed in Minsk. The official motivation of his coming is the participation in the joint committee of the Russian and Belarusian Interior Ministries. However, today Gryzlov meets with Alexander Lukashenko. Owing to the Interior Minister’s significance on the Russian political arena, many link his coming with some confidential mission, entrusted to him by Kremlin.

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Last Friday Alexander Lukashenko dismissed from post his aide, head of the chief ideological department of the presidential Administration Ivan Korendo. The official explanation of this move is his appointment to a different job. The sources in the Administration told the “BG” correspondent that the official would now work in the Moscow embassy, being responsible for information there.

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One of the leaders of the “Union of right forces”, leader of the parliamentary faction Boris Nemtsov strongly criticizes Alexander Lukashenko for playing a “double game” in the process of the “union state’s” formation. “I’m convinced that Russia in the persons of president Vladimir Putin and responsible Russian parties wholeheartedly wills to unit with Belarus. At the same time, Lukashenko is playing a double game,” – stated Nemtsov. “Alexander Lukashenko speaks a lot of friendship and fraternity, doing nothing economically or politically for a final merger,” – noted the politician.

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Alexander Lukashenko intends to rule the country unlimitedly. Although his presidential authority expires in the year 2006, he is seeking ways to extend his term of rule for five more years, regardless of the fact that Constitution doesn’t allow for a third consecutive presidential tenure.

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