Medvedev may meet with Belarusian PM in Kazakhstan

The first meeting between Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Belarusian counterpart Mikhail Myasnikovich after the detention of the Uralkali CEO in Minsk can take place at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Council in Kazakhstan on September 24-25, a source in the Russian government told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. “A meeting between Medvedev and Myasnikovich will most likely take place in late September,” the source said. After Uralkali withdrawal in late July from the Belarusian Potash Company, which is a trading joint venture with the Belarusian producer of potash fertilizers Belaruskali, Uralkali Director General Vladislav Baumgertner was detained in Minsk on August 26 and then was put into custody within the investigation of the criminal cases, which the Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office opened. Then it was reported on September 2 the Belarusian Investigative Committee named Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, major shareholder of the Russian Uralkali potash company and the Belarusian Potash Company, as a defendant in the criminal case against officials of the closed joint stock Belarusian potash company. The investigative committee noted that detectives have found Kerimov’s actions as abuse of office. The maximal penalty under this criminal article is ten years in prison with the confiscation of property.