GERMAN REGIONAL LEADER COMPARES BELARUS TO FORMER EAST GERMANY. Matthias Platzeck, the minister-president of the eastern German state of Brandenburg, met with Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski in Minsk on October 23, Belapan reported. Platzeck told the agency that during the meeting he stressed the need "to balance out the system of basic values in the country to enable the normal development of society." He added that the Belarusian prime minister "confirmed that he is open for such a conversation." After returning to Germany, Platzeck told "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" that the situation in today's Belarus reminds him of the former Communist East Germany. "Nothing is prohibited, but everything is made impossible. So we knew that sort of thing too," the October 24 issue of the German daily quotes him as saying.
(Fonte: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty).
