Belarusian state TV widely covered various topics related to the recent Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius. Journalists commented upon the final reaction of Victor Yanukovych to an offer from Brussels, mass demonstrations in Ukraine and also the interests of...
Minsk continues political manoeuvring around the issue of the establishment of a Russian air force base in Belarus. Apparently, negotiations around the military facility have been not been going well for Minsk so far. In this regard, in November, Alexsandr Lukashenka...
The regime of Aliaksandr Lukashenka rejected the ethno-national model of state suggested by his predecessors in the early 1990s.Instead, he restored a soviet style “statist nation” with a centralised bureaucratic machine at its core. These are the conclusions reached in...
While all eyes focus on Ukraine deeply stuck at crossroads choosing a proper direction, Eastern and Western donors zealously compete in Belarusian energy sector. In early November, the World Bank offered a $90m loan for the reconstruction of several Belarusian...
On 26 November, unknown militants believed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda attacked two Belarusians in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. One was killed, another severely wounded. The men worked for the Yemeni presidential security service for about a year, as...
The Vilnius Summit of the Eastern Partnership is over. As expected, Ukraine dominated all official and fringe events. Belarus would have been almost forgotten if not for an interesting initiative by international and Belarusian civil society organisations. As a parallel...
A nearly four month long “potassium war” between Minsk and Moscow has come to its logical conclusion. It has provided another example of Russia provoking Belarus' president and then quietly accommodating him. As Uralkali manager Vladislav Baumgertner found himself back in Moscow,...
In the last week a number of events on Belarus took place alongside the Vilnius Summit. BўROOM, Reality Check gathered experts, political figures and activists to discuss various issue on Belarusian civil society. Eco-workshops for children launched in Minsk. Teachers...
Last Saturday, the famous Belarusian band Lyapis Trubeckoy gathered over ten thousand fans, mostly young people who came from Belarus, at a concert in the Siemens Arena in Vilnius. Today a number of prominent Belarusian musicians face serious difficulties when...
On 28-29 November Vilnius hosted the Third Eastern Partnership Summit. Uladzimir Makei, the Belarusian Minister for Foreign Affairs, took part in the event. During the summit, Makei said that Belarus would start negotiations on visa regime liberalisation with the EU. It appears...
This November a budget deficit and the lack of a labour force for state enterprises compelled the Belarusian authorities to initiate several controversial laws to help overcome the economic crisis. The government plans to recruit teenagers to underpaid unskilled jobs and to...
This November showed the need for foreign capital in the Belarusian economy is becoming more and more acute. By the end of October the international reserves of Belarus decreased by $575m and amounted to $6.813bn. This number is much lower than the $8,500 predicted...
On 20-21 November, Alexander Lukashenka visited Baku. He held talks with Azerbaijan state leader Ilham Aliyev and they opened the new building of the Belarusian Embassy in Baku. This building became a good sign of the quickly developing relations...
Last week, the Belarusian Supreme Economic Court approved recalling the license of a major Minsk-based publishing house. The government apparently shut it down for publications which seemed too political. This decision dealt a serious blow to Belarusian-language culture since few publishers have produced...
