In early March, the U.N. Security Council's independent panel of experts raised the issue of Belarusian and Russian arms sold to Sudan. According to the experts, Sudan had used these weapons in the Darfur region, violating a Security Council resolution and written...
On 26 February 2012, Minister of Education Syarhei Maskevich announced a substantial increase of a minimum passing grade to Belarusian universities. The government wants to decrease the number of poorly performing students and to redirect young people to technical colleges...
Alexander Lukashenka took part in the funeral of Venezuelan former President Hugo Chavez. Standing together by the coffin of their friend, Lukashenka and Ahmadinejad could not stop the tears. Isolated from the West, the Belarusian ruler does not have much...
In 2012 the majority of all NGOs registered in Belarus were sport-related. State-funded Belarusian Dumka discussed options for political modernization. Belarus is among top countries in EU visas refusal - fresh BISS study reveals. According to a Belsat study, Belarusians are...
On weekends, Vilnius looks like a Belarusian city. Cars with Belarusian registration plates, crowds of Belarusians carrying shopping bags, even bus schedules to Belarus from big shopping centres. In 2012, according to the Lithuanian State Department of Tourism, 400,000 Belarusian...
Appointing three new university rectors on 28 February, Alexander Lukashenka once again stated that there exists no problem with the Belarusian language at universities. Meanwhile, only 0.2 per cent of university students study in the Belarusian language, according to a recent...
Who constitutes a 'new majority'? What is the 'Civil Agreement on Change' about? - campaign Tell the Truth! presented its strategy for the next local and presidential elections. The civil society organised numerous educational opportunities and events for Belarusians. Among...
The Belarusian military forces rarely fall into the spotlight of public discussions. Like in other post-Soviet countries, this institution mainly lives behind closed doors. Army generals normally try to escape contact with the media and their critics in the...
The planned Belarusian-Russian joint military drill, “West 2013”, has stirred up NATO member countries. The armed forces of both countries will hold the drill in the autumn, while some Polish and Lithuanian politicians have already discussed the threat of...
On 15 February 2013, Juriy Zisser, founder of the most popular Belarusian website TUT.by, and Natalya Radina, the chief-editor of popular oppositional website Charter97.org, publicly quarrelled in Vienna. This incident revealed a much deeper split in Belarusian society than many...
Last month Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenka appointed Viktar Sheiman as head of the President's Property Administration, the biggest state-owned business empire and the financial backbone of Lukashenka's regime. Barely any other officials of the Belarusian regime are demonised by...
Do well-situated people need European Values? Does the new Russian foreign policy doctrine prompt changes in Minsk to turn to the West? Analysts also examine if there are any pro-Western trends in foreign policy and society. Belarusian experts discuss whether...
In 2012 the most recognisable Belarusian brand abroad was World of Tanks according to Belarusian contest The brand of the year. Produced by Belarus-based Wargaming it allows hundreds of thousands of players play the computer game at the same time....
The official interpretation of history in Belarus has experienced a dramatic evolution since the USSR's collapse. At the first stage a Belarusian nationalist-oriented approach dominated in historiography. After Lukashenka came to power in 1994, a reversal to a Soviet...
