The steel-and-concrete skeleton of the Echelon project has stood on the north Strip since 2008, a symbol of the initial promise and disastrous end of the Las Vegas construction boom.

WSJ: Asian firm buys site of stalled Vegas Strip casino

The Red Poppy is an internationally-recognised symbol of remembrance and has been so since the end of the First World War.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Red poppy 'less Christian' claim

In the end, Mr Lukashenka and Russia's president, Boris Yeltsin, settled, once again, for symbol rather than substance.

ECONOMIST: Slavic symbolism | The