ST. PETERSBURG, January 24 (RIA Novosti) - Vladimir Putin is holding talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin administration said Tuesday.
The presidential meeting in St. Petersburg will be followed by a session of the Supreme State Council of the Russia-Belarus Union State.
The session will focus on the development of bilateral integration cooperation.
The idea of the state initially emerged in 1997 to foster political and economic integration, in particular by standardizing taxes and tariffs, but has largely remained on paper. Belarus was to have adopted the Russian ruble as a single currency for the state in 2005, but the move has been postponed.
