Russia, Belarus, Ukraine to Unite?

Sooner of later Russia, Belarus and Ukraine will be together, forming either a union or a community, the RIA Novosti correspondents quote Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko as saying at a press conference on Friday.

He did not rule out that a conversation to this effect between the three presidents would very soon be resumed in Ukraine. "We will maintain the dialogue with great caution so as not to stir agitation and to be put in isolation from other states of the Commonwealth of Independent States", said Alexander Lukashenko. The three Slavic peoples must not separate off from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and the Caucasian republics, he emphasized.

Alexander Lukashenko set high store by Vladimir Putin's position on the matter of bringing closer together the three Slavic states. He also called it symbolical that at the Kiev summit meeting on Wednesday the three leaders exchanged editions of the Tale of Igor's Regiment in the three Slavic languages.