170 people took part in the flash-mob in support of political prisoners which was held in Minsk on January 19 in Minsk. The action took place at 8.30 p.m. near the “Aurora” cinema. The people with burning candles marched along Prititsky street and then stood up in a chain. Several young people were detained before the action started in the vicinity of the “Frunzenskaya” metro station. They had been held in the OMON bus for an hour and then released. Nobody was arrested after the action.

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Following their second round of talks, Iranian and Belarusian defense ministers here on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of defense.

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Two weeks after Russia switched off oil supplies to Germany, Merkel and Putin met for a summit at Putin`s residence in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi. Merkel spoke of "irritations," while Putin promised Russia would play by the rules in the future.

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Germany trust Russia as supplier of energy resources, Minister for Economics and Technology Michael Glos said in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper.

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with the visiting Belarusian Defense Minister, Leonid Maltsev, here on Monday. During the meeting, Ahmadinejad said that the two states share identical views about regional and global issues, and voiced Tehran`s support for the expansion and development of ties and cooperation with Minsk in all areas.

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Today the Iran media have informed about the second day of Leanid Maltsau`s, minister of defense of Belarus, visit to Teheran. Until today the Belarusian state media haven`t informed of the Maltsau`s visit to Teheran, and the press-service of the defense agency has neither approved nor denied this information. "The state media here operate not in the information mode but in the mode of propaganda. It is not a surprise, that we`ve got to know about the Maltsau`s visit to Teheran from foreign press", considers Andrei Sannikov, former deputy minister for foreign affairs of Belarus, international coordinator of the Charter`97. "As far as the visit itself is concerned, any issue may be discussed there. Most likely, it may be air-defense devices, their electronic "filling" and possible maintenance service of the missile complexes, supplied by Russia, because corresponding specialists are available in Belarus and the Belarusian services will be cheaper than the Russian ones. It can`t be excluded that the nuclear program is under discussion. Creation of nuclear weapons is unlikely to be the direct subject of the discussion but the so-called "double-purpose" technologies are most likely to be discussed with Iran. The fact that it has been done on the sly and not covered by the state media does witness the possibility of military-purpose technologies` transfer to Iran", considers the Charter`97 coordinator.

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On January 21 in the "Panorama nedely" program the recording of Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe interview was broadcasted. "To my mind, the new situation is being set up in Belarus. It is ready to become more open and to make concrete steps to demonstrate the EU that it is able to maintain the open dialogue in terms of the most important priorities for the European Union. And this situation has been set up, I believe, before my arrival," the Belarusian TV translated the words of van der Linden.

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