| 11.01.2010 |
Doing Business With Lukashenka’s Regime
Typically, one would not expect to find a “Special Report” on Belarus in The Financial Times. In recent years, most of the western business community has shown limited interest in the country. It wasn’t so long ago, that some people joked about turning the country into an amusement park for people nostalgic over the break-up of the Soviet Union. While politics may have played a contributing role in this lack of interest, it was more likely the perception that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to undertake profitable activities in Belarus. |
| 11.01.2010 |
Lukashenka Makes Key Leadership Changes in Belarus
On December 4, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka made sweeping changes to the higher echelons of the leadership. The changes reflect both adverse news on the economic front and the installment of some hard-line personalities on the eve of a series of elections that will monopolize the next 12-15 months. The main opposition newspaper refers to the changes as “KGBization” and restoring ideological control over the media (Narodnaya Volya, December 5). |
| 11.01.2010 |
Opinion Poll Reveals the Impact of The Global Recession on Belarus
A synopsis of the latest opinion poll (September 2009) conducted in Belarus by the Independent Institute of Social-Economic and Political Research has been published on the Institute’s website (www.iiseps.org). The Charter 97 website issued a press release, which maintained that given a choice, Belarusians would join the European Union, but decline to join the Russia-Belarus Union (RBU). It further declared that based on the poll, a majority of Belarusians now wish to replace Alyaksandr Lukashenka as president (www.charter97.org, October 5). This analysis, however, over-simplifies the issues and obfuscates the attitude of the Belarusian population to the consequences of the economic crisis and current bilateral relations with Russia. |
| 11.01.2010 |
New Blocs Cooperation With Regime
Lyavon Barshcheuski, the former head of the Belarusian Popular Front says creation of the Belarusian Independent Bloc (BIB) is a “capitulatory project and treason”. |
| 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 |
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. |
| 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. |
| 04.07.2009 |
Belarusian President Boycotts Moscows CSTO Summit
Belarus refused to attend the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Moscow on June 14. The summit made decisions to enlarge the size of collective rapid deployment forces, the scope of their missions, and the legal basis of their operations. |
| 04.07.2009 |
Declaration of the European Council on the Eastern Partnership
1. Promoting stability, good governance and economic development in its Eastern neighbourhood is of strategic importance for the European Union. The EU therefore has a strong interest in developing an increasingly close relationship with its Eastern partners, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The European Union's proposal for an ambitious Eastern Partnership to be established with these countries serves this objective. |
| 04.07.2009 |
Europes Last Dictatorship
Minsk, Belarus -- One of the questions I was repeatedly asked during a recent trip to the capital of Belarus was whether the Obama administration would opt for greater pragmatism at the expense of idealism in foreign policy. Both the government and opposition in this country have a vested interest in the answer. |
| 25.03.2009 |
Influences on Belarusian Nationhood: Soviet Institutionalization Or Direct Russification?
According to a widespread view within the Western political theory, particular Soviet policies and institutions facilitated the emergence of nationalism in the former Soviet republics. For instance, at the beginning of 1990s social scientists Rogers Brubaker and Ronald Suny developed the concept which adhered to a modernist approach of conceptualizing the nation as an “imagined community” and stressed the role of Soviet policies and institutions in the “crystallization” of nations within the USSR. |
| 15.01.2009 |
Changing Priorities in Belarus
Several recent events suggest that changes are underway in Belarus as it emerges from isolation and begins new dialogues with the countries of the European Union. According to sociological surveys, the electorate remains behind the president; and after a brief shock engendered by sharp price rises at the end of 2007, Belarusian society rapidly returned to apathy, which is described in the official media as “stability” (Belorusy i Rynok, November 17-24). That allowed the government of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to enjoy a comfortable victory in the 2008 parliamentary elections, albeit in a restrictive environment. |
| 15.01.2009 |
OSCE Election Experts to Visit Minsk For Consultations
Belarusian election officials will hold consultations with representatives of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Minsk in the latter half of January, said Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission on December 17. |
| 15.01.2009 |
Belarus’ Parliamentary Elections Fail to Meet OSCE Democratic Elections Commitments
Helsinki Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Vote Count Particularly Problematic
The conduct of the September 28 parliamentary elections in Belarus fell significantly short of international standards, despite some hopes that there would be improvements following the August release of political prisoners, Belarus’ reluctance to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia and statements by senior Belarusian officials raising expectations. The Commission followed the run-up to the elections closely, holding a hearing on September 16 titled “Business as Usual? Belarus on the Eve of the Elections,” and issuing a press release expressing concern about the pre-election climate and encouraging last minute steps, including transparency in the vote count and full access for OSCE observers. [Both the hearing and the press release are available on the Commission’s website.] |
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