RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – June 15, 2009
TODAY: ‘Milk war’ steps up a notch; Lukashenko absent from security summit in Moscow; rapid reaction force agreed upon at CSTO meeting; Kremlin hopes for larger role in Afghanistan resolution; third killing in North Caucasus in week of violence; US says WTO bid for three needs to be examined
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has vexed President Medvedev by boycotting a meeting of the CSTO, the post-Soviet security bloc, without personally informing him. Tensions have been high recently due to trade disagreements on dairy products. Russia has emphasized that the milk import ban is a technical matter and has been over-politicized by Belarus. Belarussian experts will arrive in Moscow today to continue discussions over the issue, which it hopes will be settled within a week. At the security summit an agreement was made on the creation of a joint rapid-reaction force, without Belarus as a signatory, although Minsk has stressed that no summit decisions would be valid without its involvement.