Belarus sent its foreign minister, Vladimir Makey, to Brussels on Monday (22 July) after his EU visa ban was suspended last month.
The Belarus envoy, a former military intelligence officer, was the first regime official to visit Brussels since Minsk's violent crackdown on the opposition following rigged presidential elections in December 2010.
His visit is an effort to ease ties in the run-up to the "Eastern Partnership" summit in Lithuania.
But rights groups, including Huma...
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.