Moscow | Russia will move ahead with a second $US500 million ($648 million) loan to Belarus next month, following talks between the two countries’ leaders amid uproar in the West over the grounding of a passenger jet in Minsk and the arrest of a dissident blogger.

President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko held a second day of talks, as well as a yacht tour, in the southern Russian city of Sochi on Saturday (Sunday AEST), as the Russian leader showed his long-standing ally support in this latest stand-off with the West.

Reuters