Belarus' President Lukashenko heads to Russia for talks with President Putin, less than 24 hours after more than 100K people took to the streets in the latest protest to demand his resignation.
Those ties were further strained just before the election after Belarus detained a group of suspected Russian mercenaries, whom Belarusian authorities accused of being in the country to destabilize it. Russia denied employing mercenaries for that purpose. Lukashenko has since said the arrests were a mistake.
Last week, one of the most high-profile protest figures, Maria Kolesnikova, said she was forcefully taken to the border with Ukraine last week as Belarusian security officers tried to force her out of the country. Kolesnikova said she received death threats as Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Sochi, Russia, in February.Keir Giles, of the London-based foreign policy think tank, Chatham House, said the stakes were high for both sides in the talks — both men must decide how much each needs the other.
"Whatever the official announcements from this meeting ... we can be sure that much more has been agreed behind the scenes, the real meaning [of which] will be played out in Belarus over the coming weeks and months" he added.
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