DATE:
14/06/2009
Associated Press
Belarus says it is staying away from the summit of a Moscow-led security alliance to protest a Russian ban on Belarusian dairy products.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman says President Alexander Lukashenko and the Belarusian delegation would not travel to Moscow for Sunday's summit of the seven-nation Organization of the Collective Security Treaty.
The Belarusian boycott raises the stakes in the politically-charged dispute between Russia and one of its closest allies.
Lukashenko has depended heavily on Russia for economic and political support, while earning the opprobrium of the U.S. and European Union with his authoritarian rule.
But he has been courting the West amid increasingly strained relations with Moscow.
Source:
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=976527&lang=eng_news
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