Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is to end more than a decade of isolation by the West this weekend as he visits Italy and meets the Pope in the Vatican today.
Long accused of crushing fundamental rights in his ex-Soviet republic, Lukashenko leaves for Rome today after receiving a series of signals that the West was now willing at least to talk to him, if not to embrace him openly.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he would meet Lukashenko. The visit’s main feature will be an audience with Pope Benedict that the president hopes will help improve chilly relations between the Catholic Church and Orthodoxy and may lead to a meeting between their two leaders in Belarus.
“Meeting the Pope as part of his first visit is clearly a good idea if only for the reason that the president can be certain that there will be no unpleasant surprises,” said analyst Alexander Klaskovsky. “Everything will be fitting and according to plan.”
Lukashenko’s last official visit to a western country, France, dates back to 1995.
Belarus was until last year criticized repeatedly in Washington and Brussels, and Lukashenko was banned from entering the EU on the grounds that he had rigged his re-election in 2006.
The ban was suspended last year when the bloc noted improvements in Belarus’ record. Last week, Lukashenko secured an invitation to the EU’s May 7 “Eastern Partnership” summit in Prague aimed at providing support for six former Soviet republics and easing energy dependence on Moscow — though he is unlikely to attend himself.
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