Article: From white Russia with love ; I'm standing in exactly the centre of Europe - and a giant of a man wearing a beret, a scowl and what I can only assume is a gun bulging beneath his fawn leather jacket is telling me to "go away".

I'm standing in exactly the centre of Europe - and a giant of a man wearing a beret, a scowl and what I can only assume is a gun bulging beneath his fawn leather jacket is telling me to "go away".

The small granite pyramid that I'm trying to photograph signifies that I'm in the middle of Minsk in the centre of Belarus, which the locals proudly claim is the geographical heart of Europe.

And when the natives can look as intimidating as the chap standing just a few feet away from me, eyeing my camera with an almost paranoid level of suspicion, then I'm not about to disagree.

This isn't the typical welcome in Belarus, where generally the hospitality towards visitors is warm and generous. But ...

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