BELARUS DIGEST

Andrej Sannikau, a potential candidate in 2011 Belarus presidential elections appeared on Hard Talk, the BBC World flagship current affairs interview programme.

Stephen Sackur, BBC journalist who interviewed Mr Sannikau has made a few “hard” points, in particular to Mr Sannikau’s own personality. The journalist correctly pointed out that Mr Sannikau does not represent any major political organization in Belarus, just a well-run web site. Mr Sannikau also appears as an intellectual detached from the Belarusian population and is likely to have more friends in the West than in Belarus.

Stephen Sackur also pointed out that the Belarus’ economy is better than Ukrrain’s and the regime in Minsk has not committed any serious human rights violations since 1990-s when several prominent opposition figures disappeared. Lukashenka also seems to remain popular and Belarus economy is becoming more open because of the privatisation process.

Sanniknau correctly explained that it was wrong to judge the regime’s popularity by looking at opinion polls. No access to electronic media by anyone other that the ruling regime means no real popularity for anyone else. He also correctly pointed out that it was misleading to compare Belarus to Ukraine which because Belarus was in a much better shape after collapse of the Soviet Union. Privatisation in Belarus is done in a non-transparent way which is unlikely to benefit either the Belarus population or will make the economy more liberal. Finally, Sannikau pointed out that the prospect of Belarus’ integration into Russia is supported neither by the vast majority of Belarus population, nor by Belarus regime nor opposition.

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Russian major television channel NTV featured a movie “The God Father”. The movie depicts the story of mysterious disappearances of major politicians in 1990s and other human rights violations committed in Belarus recently. The documentary also emphasizes that Russia has spent enormous amounts of money to support the Lukashenka regime. According to the movie, Russian subsidies is the main reason for the “Belarus economic wonder”.

The Belarusian president came in for some bruising criticism on 4 July, the official Belarus Independence Day, where he was portrayed as a dishonest, unscrupulous and ignorant dictator intent on holding onto power at all costs.

The God Father movie (available below in Russian) is a clear sign that the Kremlin wants to put pressure on Lukashenka in the wake of presidential elections in Belarus.

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The German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung began its article on Boris Kit’s 100th anniversary with a scene from revolutionary Petrograd:

In February 1917, a small boy is running with his mother on the streets of wintry St. Petersburg. The mother pulls him to a back street to one of the magnificent avenues of the city of the tsars. There are many people running around. They wave red flags, they sing and shout. The mother says, “Look, Boris!” The boy shifts from one foot to the other – “I want to go home, mama, I’m cold!

Boris Kit was born on 6 April 1910 in St Petersburg (then Petrograd). As a young kid he witnessed the Russian revolution. In 1933, he got his Master’s degree from Vilnius (then Vilnia) University and began to teach mathematics at the Belarusian Gymnasium. In 1939 he became its director. After Stalin incorporated Vilnia into Lithuania, Kit moved to Western Belarus where he worked on establishing Belarusian schools.

He was briefly imprisoned by the Nazis and then had to flee Belarus at the end of the World War II. Boris Kit has made a distinguished career as a rocket scientist and a professor at the University of Maryland in the United States. Michael Scanlan, Charge d’Affaires in Belarus, recently named Boris Kit and Tadeusz Kosciuszko as two Belarusians who have made profound contributions to the development of America.

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Evgeny is known to Belarusians of Washington because of his article in Newsweek on how this blog had been shut down ealier this year. You can watch his talk on how authoritarian regimes use internet below.

Evgeny Morozov became a Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown University for 2009-2010. A national of Belarus, Evgeny was a fellow of Open Society Institute in New York before moving to Washington. He publishes and speaks widely on of the impact of Internet and social media on democracy. He also runs net.effect blog with Foreign Policy magazine.

Evgeny Morozov appeared on CNN, BBC, published in the Economist, New York Times, International Herald Tribune and other periodicals. Below is his recent interview for a blog of Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper.

Euronews analyzed the most recent developments in Belarus-EU relations. The video report concluded that the main reason for what Belarusian authorities turned to the West is because Minsk is short of cash.

There are signs Belarus is opening up. But the opposition advises caution, suggesting President Lukashenko just needs Europe to help Belarus weather the global economic storm. Watch the video.