Belarusian President to arrive in Moscow to negotiate union with Russia

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will arrive in Russia on aworking visit today by invitation from his Russian counterpart VladimirPutin. Yesterday, Lukashenko announced that "no-one will be allowed,neither the Russian nor the Belarusian president, to get in the way of thesingle state, because the people (of Russia and Belarus) want a union," RTRtelevision was quoted him as saying.According to Lukashenko, his visit was planned for the beginning of Julybut it was postponed as the sides were not ready for negotiations, inparticular, the topic of the negotiations was not formulated. Therefore,the presidents agreed to postpone the meeting until August.The main topic to be discussed at this meeting will be the integrationbetween Russia and Belarus. A Russian expert on foreign politics reportedthat the presidents would analyze the process of elaborating on the UnionConstitution and the union's legislation, which is necessary, inparticular, for elections to the Union parliament. In addition, Putin andLukashenko are going to discuss "cooperation in foreign politics, inparticular, in strengthening regional security and the formation of a largeEurope without borderlines." The expert stressed that the formation of asingle economic zone of Russia and Belarus remained one of the prioritiesfor the two leaders..