Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Belarus on June 27-28. The visit will be timed to the 15th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, Counselor of the Russian Embassy to Belarus Alexander Frolov told BelTA.

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During the last 6 months the Belarusian powers have repeatedly announced their intention to invite significant foreign credits. The Ministry of Economy said in February they were going to receive credits from China for more than $ 1 bln. The powers have been expecting the stabilization credit from Russia for $ 1.5 bln for a long time. Approximately EURO 1 bln was planned to be gained through the Austrian Raiffeisenbank. The Netherlands’ ABM Amro bank has announced its plans on granting the credit of EURO 500 mln for the Belarusian economy. Well-known economist, former head of the Belarusian National Bank Stanislau Bagdankievich commented on the credit situation in an interview for Charter’97 press center.

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As author of the Internet-resource “Izbrannoye” (“Selected”), observer of “Nezavisimoye voennoye obozrenie” (“Independent military review”) Igor Blagodarev deems, the talks between Chavez and Lukashenka are to touch upon weapon purchases, but supplies of the Venezuelan oil will be the key issue.

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Russia urges the speeding-up of the process of forming the “union state”, as a spokesman of the Russian Foreign Ministry has said today on the occasion of the oncoming visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Minsk on July 27-28. The trip is timed to the 15th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two states.

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On Tuesday, June 26, Alyaksandr Lukashenka congratulated workers and veterans of procurators’ offices with the Day of prosecutor’s office worker and the 85th anniversary of forming the Prosecutor’s office of the country. “For the period of its existence the Belarusian prosecutor’s office has become a secure foothold for the presidential power in overcoming illegal processes, enforcing public security, rule of law and stability,” the leader of the state said.

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As head of the ideological department of the Minsk Municipal Executive Committee Henadz Kurbieka said, a range of festivities is planned to be held in Minsk on the Day of liberation of Minsk from fascist troops.

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As Home Minister Uladzimir Navumau said Monday addressing the “parliament”, the Belarusian President’s administration has not considered the bill on amnesty yet. “We have passed all the papers to the President’s administration, but they haven’t accepted everything we had come up with. Questions emerged when we tried to define the categories of people who can be amnestied,” - the head of the Home Ministry said.

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The tax examination of the Brest district Belarusian Popular Front party office is on. The examination has been launched earlier this year, and on June 21 BPF office head Yuras Hubarevich was fined with 24 basic values for violations of accountant order.

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The Central district court declined the claim of Antoni Bokun, the Pastor of the community “John the Baptist” of the United Church of Evangelic Faith in Belarus. The believers claimed they had been treated violently by police officers on June 4. As A.Bokun told BelaPAN, judge Valery Yesman spent approximately 5 minutes considering the claim and passing the resolution. The Pastor spent 8 hours in the boot section of a police minibus “Gaz” not equipped for transporting people, which he claims to be violent treatment.

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Yesterday finance Minister Mikalay Korbut presented two bills on taxation of the country’s trade with Russia, to the “parliament”. When the Minister was reading the report on the first bill, the “parliament’s” speaker asked if he had confused issues. Nevertheless, imperturbable M.Korbut kept on reading the report. Having asked several questions after the speech, the “deputies” voted to accept the bill. That was only after the presentation of the bills when the mistake became evident: the “deputies” voted on the first issue, while the Minister had presented the second one. - Mr Korbut, I have asked you to be more accurate! - the Speaker claimed.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez goes to a foreign trip. He is to visit Russia, Belarus and Iran. As said by Venezuelan leader, he is set to discuss “topics of a high strategic level in Moscow which are related to sovereignty, defense and integrity” of the Latin American Republic. In Minsk Chavez is set to view “final details” of a contract which would allow Venezuela get “complex air defense systems” with a range of 200-300 km.

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