MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said at talks on Monday with embattled Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko that Russia had agreed a $1.5 billion loan with Minsk but the Belarusian people should resolve the crisis without foreign interference.

Putin, in comments broadcast on television from the talks in Russia’s Sochi, said he thought a proposal by Lukashenko to carry out constitutional reform was logical and timely.