The European Humanities University (EHU), the only truly independent Belarusian university in existence, has struggled to live up to its great promise. After being closed by the Belarusian authorities in 2004, the need for a vibrant and innovative university tailored primarily to Belarusians, resonated with many international donors and received their support to re-open in Vilnius in 2005. Years of conflicts between the university management and academics, mismanagement and an administration adverse to reforming the institution has been widely covered in Belarusian media recently.
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This issue of Belarus Photo Digest is about communal housing in Belarus. Nearly 800,000 Belarusians were registered as being in need of better housing conditions at the end of 2013, according to Belstat. Sixteen percent of them are living in communal housing, and nearly half are young families. Nasta and her four-year-old son Matvei live in dormitory-style housing in Maladechna, a city of 95 thousand ― a one-hour drive from Minsk.
Since 2014 the pattern of illegal exports from Belarus to EU has moved towards larger consignments. Large quantities of detained tobacco found on cargo trains. On 6 November Jury Siańko became the Head of the State Customs Committee. Will he change the current situation with smuggling from Belarus to EU? The decrease in individual border traffic and the growing share of Belarusians cigarettes in the EU shadow market are both reasons for concern. Financed by the EU and foreign tobacco producers, Belarusian State Customs Committee aims to reduce smuggling and increase revenue for the state.
The Ukrainian conflict has exposed growing ideological differences among Belarusians. When Volha Krapotsina was distributing anti-Russian leaflets in Hrodna, a fellow citizen, who empathised with the Russian side, reported her to the police. In Minsk, while some distributed stickers “We support the recognition of Novorossiya” others vandalised cars with Russian licence plates. Belarusians clash in the social media, take their views to the streets, and even travel to fight in Ukraine.
Perspektiva`s Entrepreneurs Forum gathered over 200 participants, raised media and government attention. $170,000 was granted to NGOs via state social contracting. International Human Rights Day is marked with series of events. Hrodna Golden Age University is recognised the best educational event of 2013/2014. Vyshyvanka Day Festival to be held this weekend in Minsk. Cozy Town civil campaign launches in Mahiliou to engage local citizens in solving local problems. Local residents manage to cancel a construction a pig farm near Maladzechna.
China regards Belarus as a promising market for its armaments. Attempts to establish cooperation between NATO and CSTO have failed. The situation in Afghanistan keeps special services and border guards from CIS countries on their toes: an escalation of the conflict is expected in the spring. Several ex-Soviet countries are getting ready to repel attacks from the Taliban. Belarus plans to start manufacturing engines for cruise missiles with the support of Ukrainian experts in 2016. Belarus' Ministry of Interior has a hard time recruiting new staff. All of this and more in this edition of the Belarus Security Digest.
The days when Belarus was a pariah at most European diplomatic gatherings appears to be a thing of the past. During his recent trips to Vienna and Basel, Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei met with a dozen of his counterparts from European countries. However, Belarus would benefit even more if Makei manages to curb the anti-Western rhetoric all too common in his public statements.
The new food war between Belarus and Russia may signal the end the Eurasian Economic Union. In early December Belarus and Russia unofficially resumed customs control on the border, which led to Belarus responding to a Russian imposed embargo against Belarusian meat and dairy products. The food war shows that the Eurasian Economic Union, expecting to officially launch on 1 January 2015, will be primarily a political project despite its name. Trade wars will remain the norm in relations between the two countries, in violation of numerous international agreements concluded between Belarus and Russia.
On 5 December, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko awarded a Ukrainian passport to Belarusian citizen Sergei Korotkich for “courageous and faithful service” on the battlefield. Korotkich’s dubious past, which includes leading a neo-fascist organisation in Russia and participating in a crackdown on Belarusian pro-democracy activists in the 1990s, highlights the thin line between patriotism and far-right views of foreign fighters in the Ukrainian conflict. As a growing number of Ukrainians seek refuge in Belarus, Belarusians are crossing the border in the opposite direction, to join fighters on one or the other side of the conflict. On the battlefield, young people seeking to defend Ukraine's independence may find themselves side-by-side with extremists driven by ultra-nationalist ideology.
Belarus Digest broadcasted a discussion entitled "What do Belarusians think: people's attitudes towards capital punishment" which will take place in Minsk on 10 December 2014 - Human Rights Day. This is one discussion in the "What do Belarusians think" series, organised by the Office for European Expertise and Communication in Minsk.
With the economy dominated by the state and its illiberal trade laws, many Belarusians are increasingly taking to shopping abroad. In the the middle of November, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group reported that customers from Belarus ranked fifth in the number of purchases, leaving behind the US and Canada in the online sales on Chinese anti-Valentine's Day holiday known as "Singles’ Day." Meanwhile, shopping tours in neighbouring EU countries remain a favourite weekend trip for many Belarusians. This autumn the sharp decline of the Russian rouble sparked a shopping frenzy, with Belarusians rushing to Russian cities because of the lower prices.
On 1-2 December the international conference “Regional Stability and Modernization: Challenges and Opportunities for EU-Belarus Relations” took place in Vilnius and Minsk. For the first time since the crackdown on the mass protest against the presidential election results in December 2010, the German-Belarusian Society organised an event in Minsk. The conference produced a list of concrete policy recommendations and, more importantly, helped to bring the forgotten spirit of constructive discussion back to Belarus. For a country where stakeholders are not used to talking to each other this presents a more crucial value than the conference’s formal outcomes.
Belarus has also gained some international notoriety recently. American rapper has proclaimed his love for Belarusian culture by launching an accessory line. In more gruesome news, Belarus has been a gruesome discovery that old Jewish headstones were used as building materials back in the Soviet era. As 2014 comes to a close, the situation on the ground is becoming more volatile. Pressure on civil society has led to the expulsion of a prominent legal advocacy professional and a fine to a journalist for covering a local event commemorating a Belarusian author.