| 12.10.2009 |
Russian TV Crew Expelled
A Russian TV crew’s visit to Minsk might be the Kremlin’s first move in a bid to undermine an uppity underling. |
| 12.10.2009 |
Belarusans Basking in — Not Hiding From The Spotlights Glare
The Belarus Free Theatre has no official audience in Belarus, because officially the Belarus Free Theatre does not exist. Only state-run theaters exist in Belarus, which has been described as Europe's last dictatorship. Only approved plays exist, by approved, non-revolutionary playwrights. There are no revolutionary playwrights in Belarus. Officially. |
| 12.10.2009 |
NATIONAL MINORITIES POLICIES IN LITHUANIA:
A SUCCESS STORY?
Part I of II
1. Preface
This text deals with the analysis of the scope of national minority rights in Lithuania. The text will be based on the Lithuanian domestic legislation, international legal mechanisms which Lithuania is a part of as well as works of Lithuanian and international scholars on this issue. Time framework is defined as that from the declaration of the independence of the Republic of Lithuania until now.
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| 12.10.2009 |
US Delegation Chastised By the Dictator
Representatives of the US Congress visited Belarus as a part of their visit to the Baltic and Balkan states. A meeting between the congressmen and the Belarusian dictator didn’t bring a breakthrough in relations. |
| 12.10.2009 |
The Joint Task Force Without Belarus?
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka refused to sign an agreement Saturday that would create a rapid-reaction security force, casting doubt on Moscow’s plans to form a post-Soviet military alliance and suggesting that a serious rift in relations with Minsk continues. |
| 12.10.2009 |
Lukashenkas Gambit In Relations with Moscow
On July 31, the Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka participated in an informal summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held in Cholpon Ata on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan. However, he refused to sign any documents on the Russian proposal to create the Collective Operational Reaction Forces (CORF) and Belarus has yet to take up its scheduled term as the rotating chair of the CSTO, which embraces, along with Russia and Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The trip by Lukashenka was described in the official media in Minsk as a "working visit" to Kyrgyzstan (SB-Belarus' Segodnya, July 31). It appears once again that the Belarusian president is emphasizing his distance from Moscow, but it is a risky gambit. |
| 12.10.2009 |
Lukashenka Admits Rigging 2006 Presidential Election
In an interview that appeared in Izvestiya in Moscow on August 27, the Belarusian President, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, maintained that the results of the 2006 presidential elections were falsified. However, rather than raising his total, Lukashenka had allegedly demanded that it be lowered to appear more realistic to the public. He maintains that his real total was 93 percent, but it was replaced by "something around 80 percent" (the official figure was 83 percent). |
| 12.10.2009 |
September 17 and the Roots Of Contemporary Belarus
The 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War in 1939 has been commemorated worldwide. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has denounced revisionism and attempts to belittle the Soviet victory. In Belarus, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka commemorated September 17 as the pivotal date in the foundation of the modern state, and speakers at a conference at the House of Officers requested that it be added to the calendar of state days of remembrance. |
| 12.10.2009 |
Belarusian Leader Pardons American Lawyer
MOSCOW -- The Belarusian president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, on Tuesday pardoned an American lawyer at the center of a 16-month dispute between Belarus and the United States, in a push to fully restore relations between the two countries.
During a meeting with members of the United States Congress, Mr. Lukashenko agreed to free Emanuel E. Zeltser, who was serving a three-year sentence for industrial espionage and forgery. American diplomats protested Mr. Zeltser’s mysterious arrest and closed trial, and they pressed for his release on humanitarian grounds, saying he had fallen gravely ill in prison. |
| 11.10.2009 |
Selling Belarus Family Jewels
Will Belarus's famous tractors be up for sale?
While the system constructed in Belarus over the last decade may not have been the most repressive in the post-Soviet world, it was certainly the most Soviet -- in terms of both the people that run it and the socioeconomic reality. |
| 11.10.2009 |
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
On 1 September, 2009 the world marked the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the World War II. Many political leaders including Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel took part in the commemoration ceremony in the Polish city of Gdansk. |
| 11.10.2009 |
KGB Targets the Opposition
Humiliating treatment of Franak Vyachorka in the military unit has aggravated: he is being forced to speak Russian and constantly searched. |
| 11.10.2009 |
Financial Resources and Loans Are Most Important for Us
Recently, the Belarusian ruler, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, announced that favorable conditions exist for entering into a partnership with the European Union. At a Miensk meeting with European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, he stated, “Our desire to establish good relations with you is sincere, though some do not like it.” He suggested, “I think you won’t regret your visit to Belarus,” adding, “I’d like to have an absolutely sincere and honest dialogue,” (reports Interfax).. |
| 11.10.2009 |
The New Life Church Appeals to UN
The Protestant community is struggling to keep its prayer house, which the Minsk authorities have already declared as property of the city. |
| 11.10.2009 |
Belarus, Russia Solve Milk Row, Other Problems Loom
MINSK (Reuters) -- The end to a "milk war" bedeviling relations between Belarus and Russia could prove a mere truce masking strategic differences over trade, recurring gas disputes, and Belarus's drive to move closer to the West. |
| 11.10.2009 |
Belarusian Should Be Belarus Sole Official Language
"It is necessary to restore the status of Belarusian language as the sole official language in Belarus," said Ales Marachkin, the outgoing chairman of the World Association of Belarusians BATSKAUSHCHYNA, in his speech at the Fifth Congress of Belarusians of the World, which began in Minsk on Saturday, July 18.. |
| 11.10.2009 |
An Open Letter to the Obama Administration
From Non-NATO, Non-EU EasternEurope
On July 16, 2009, the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza published an open letter to the administration of President Obama raising crucial issues pertaining to the Euro-Atlantic partnership. It was signed by some 22 foreign policy and security elites from the newer NATO and EU members— self-styled Central and Eastern European (CEE) intellectuals. Whether implicitly or explicitly, al the matters they touched on concern the dynamics of current and likely future events in their region of Europe vis-a-vis Russia. Their call for a reengaged, collaborative United States as a true partner with Europe in addressing concerns of the region was eloquent, accurate and most timely. |
| 11.10.2009 |
The Belarusian People: Between a Rock and Hard Place
The recent publication in Poland of an open letter to the administration of President Obama signed by 22 foreign policy and national security elites from the newer NATO and EU member states of Central and Eastern Europe attracted considerable attention on both sides of the Atlantic. Most of the issues touched on in the letter deal one way or the other with Russia--its present and possible future relations with their countries--within the broader context of their places in the transatlantic community. |
| 11.10.2009 |
Summer Solstice Festivity — Kupalle
In the very center of Minsk there is a place where the River Svislach makes a wide curve between the October and Victory squares. This meander nests an oasis of old moss-covered maples and trembling aspens. This park is named after a famous Belarusian poet and writer Yanka Kupala. It hosts the poet’s museum, his statue, and a fountain that features two nude, yet innocent-looking, bronze-cast girls throwing garlands into the water. Unlike the Gorky Park, which is right across the main avenue and is always full of young families with clouds of candy floss in their hands, the Kupala Park is a quiet place, suitable for reflection and tranquillity. |
| 11.10.2009 |
CENTRAL and EAST EUROPEAN COALITION
MEETS with U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIALS
Washington, DC– Following two very important foreign policy trips by President Obama to Moscow and Vice President Biden to Ukraine and Georgia, the Central and East European Coalition (CEEC), an assembly of 18 ethnic organizations representing the communities of Central and East European descent, had an opportunity to meet with the principal architects for the Obama Administration’s foreign policy agenda. |
| 05.07.2009 |
Congress of New Belarusian Diaspora
The Second Congress of the New Belarusian Diaspora of Europe and the USA took place in Strasbourg, France, on April 24-28, 2009. The New Belarusian Leaders Forum: Renaissance Generation addressed the matters of cooperation between the EU and Belarus united the representatives of the younger cohort of Belarusian émigrés in the EU and the USA. |
| 05.07.2009 |
Russia Struggles to Sustain Alliance with Belarus
Russia's relationship with its former closest ally Belarus, has reached a new low point following a bitter dispute. Moscow has apparently struggled to remain on good terms with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenka -described by some as Europe's last dictator. Meanwhile, although both countries have attempted to form a "union state," Lukashenka bluntly told his government that they must no longer rely upon Russia. The session of the council of ministers of the Russia-Belarus union state held in Minsk on May 28, proved to be a major disappointment for both sides. |
| 05.07.2009 |
Caucasus Impacts Russia-Belarus Relations
Vienna, May 26 – Minsk’s latest refusal to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia and even more the suggestion by some officials there that Moscow should “compensate” the Belarusian government to get it to take that step reflect underlying problems in the relationship of the two Slavic countries, according to a leading Moscow analyst. |
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