Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has become the first Western government leader in years to travel to Belarus, considered a pariah by the West. The trip is partly a matter of diplomatic protocol. But it may also be a chance for Berlusconi to explore better Western ties with Minsk while representing little risk for the EU.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev is in Minsk ahead of a Eurasian Economic Community (Eurasec) summit where Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan are to form a customs union, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has called Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's meeting with members of the Belarusian media "senseless," RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will become the first Western leader in a decade to visit Belarus when he travels there this month, marking another milestone in the ex-Soviet country's efforts to open to the EU.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting with Belarusian journalists at his residence in Barvikha on November 23, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.
Youth activists in Minsk have held a so-called "orange" protest against the government of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.
Russia has confirmed it wants to join the World Trade Organization and said members of its customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus would seek to join as separate entities.
The European Union continues what officials in Brussels describe as a "pragmatic" policy of keeping in place a travel ban on top Belarusian officials -- but not enforcing it, as long as Minsk continues to respond to the bloc's overtures.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says antiviral medicines like Tamiflu should be used much earlier by doctors in order to prevent deaths from swine flu. The UN agency also says it is sending more supplies of antivirals to developing countries most affected by swine flu. Those countries include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine.
Before the autumn revolutions in Eastern Europe, there was the Moscow Spring in the Soviet Union. In 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev's reform policies hit their high-water mark, as the USSR held its first competitive elections, press freedom flourished, and civil society awakened.
The rights watchdog Amnesty International is demanding that authorities in Ukraine "immediately and unconditionally" release Belarusian activist Ihar Koktysh.
Russian film director Maria Solovtsova has died in the Belarus capital, Minsk, after having flu-like symptoms.
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