Lukashenko to meet Putin after blaming West for Belarusian crisis

Belarusians have faced off against riot police in the latest mass protests against the country’s autocratic president, Alexander Lukashenko, as he prepares for talks with Russia that could be crucial to the future of his embattled regime. For the fifth Sunday in succession, some 100,000 people marched through the nation’s capital, Minsk, and smaller crowds rallied in other cities despite the presence of soldiers and police with armoured vehicles and water cannon. Officials said 250 people had been arrested by early afternoon in Minsk,...