Moscow, May 30 (TIWN) Russia will support Belarus with $500 million in credit over the coming weeks, the leaders of the two countries have agreed.

During a meeting in Sochi on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his visiting Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko agreed the sum would be paid out by the end of June, dpa news agency quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying.  This is the second tranche of a credit package that was agreed before the controversial forced landing of a passenger aeroplane in Minsk on May 23 in order to arrest a dissident blogger, Roman Protasevich, and his partner Sofia Sapega.  During their meeting, Putin and Lukashenko spoke about trade and economic cooperation, Peskov said.  Belarus' economy is weak, and it has already borrowed billions of dollars from Moscow.  During the opening of the meeting, both leaders complained about pressure from Western countries on Belarus.  After the incident with the plane, the Ryanair commercial flight between Athens and Vilnius that was forced to reroute and land in Minsk, the European Union (EU) and the US imposed fresh sanctions on Belarus, which the Kremlin slammed as an emotional reaction.