BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
01/09/2010
Russia Demands Probe After Terrorists Attack Mission In Minsk
Minsk, Belarus (AHN) - In what could deteriorate relations between two former Soviet nations, unidentified assailants attacked the Russian Embassy with petrol bombs in Belarus' capital Minsk on Tuesday.
Russia demanded an immediate investigation into the incident. No one was injured but the firebombs hit a car parked inside the embassy.
The Russian Foreign Ministry described the incident as an outrageous act and denounced terrorists' desires to bring distrust and tensions to relations between the two nations.
It also urged the Belarussian government to take necessary measures to punish those responsible for the incident.
Belarus' Foreign Ministry's spokesman Andrei Savinykh said the incident was an act of hooliganism to further strain the relations between Minsk and Moscow.
Russia has signed a treaty with Belarus for a single union state. However, the two states remain at odds because of political and economic differences between Belarus' authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenka and the Kremlin.
Relations are also tense because of the Russian media's propaganda war against Lukashenka as well as a number of disputes including oil and gas, the formation of Customs Union bloc and Russia's decision to recognize Georgian separatist regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
This is not the first time the Russian mission has come under attack in Belarus.
Source:
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