Anatoly Lebedko may meet with President Bush in Tbilisi :: Charter'97 :: News

Anatoly Lebedko, leader of Belarus` United Civic Party (UCP), will meet with George Bush during the US president`s visit to Tbilisi on May 10, news agencies reported on Friday night with reference of Georgia`s Rustavi 2 television channel.

"I do plan to leave for Georgia on May 7 or 8," Mr. Lebedko told BelaPAN. "There is a probability of my meeting with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. As for reports that I will meet with Bush, I can neither confirm nor deny it."

The UCP leader declined the question as to whether he would go to Tbilisi individually or among a delegation. "For the time being, I respond for myself," he said.

Mr. Lebedko also said that the Rustavi 2 channel had planned to broadcast an interview with him. The interview was to be recorded and transmitted with the help of the Minsk studio of Mir, the CIS interstate broadcasting company, which ultimately denied its assistance. "Rustavi 2 reporters appear to have been unaware of our peculiarities," Mr. Lebedko said. "I had doubted since the beginning that they in Georgia would manage to record an interview with me with the help of this intermediary."