Russian President Putin in Minsk for a two-day visit

May 23, 2000
Web posted at: 2:01 p.m. EDT (2101 GMT)

MOSCOW (CNN) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Minsk on Tuesday for a two-day working visit, the Interfax news agency reported.

Together with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, Putin was to attend a session of the interstate council of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

On Wednesday, Minsk was to host a session of the Commonwealth of Independent States Collective Security Council, attended by leaders of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

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Putin was also planning to hold several bilateral meetings in Minsk.

Before his departure Tuesday morning, Putin introduced the new chief of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Lt. Gen. Sergei Lebedev, to the service personnel, the agency said.

The 52-year-old Lebedev and Putin both worked as Soviet intelligence officers in East Germany in the 1980s.

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