MINSK, December 6. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he hopes to see his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko at December’s year-end informal meeting of CIS leaders in St. Petersburg.

"Naturally, I hope to see Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] in St. Petersburg on December 25 and 26, at the traditional informal meeting of CIS leaders and the session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council," Putin said at a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.

Putin has been a regular guest at these informal CIS meetings since he first became president in 2000. In recent years, the meetings have been hosted by Russia’s second largest city, St. Petersburg, in late December. These meetings, as a rule, have no strict and coordinated agenda, so, the leaders informally exchange views on whatever is on their mind.