This autumn nearly 200 aspiring students will start their studies at different European universities with the support of the European Scholarship Scheme for Young Belarusians (ESSYB) managed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. It provided them an excellent EU-funded opportunity to overcome the country's isolation and to build the network of highly qualified and motivated peers interested in democratic and prosperous development of Belarus.

The most well-known international indexes show that Belarus is maintaining the potential of its people, although its governance, economy, political and economic freedoms remain at a very low level. Belarus has had a rather good showing in the UNDP Human Development Index, the Legatum Prosperity Index and the Ease of Doing Business Index. But the results of Economic Freedom Index, Press Freedom Index, Freedom House Index, Global Peace Index, Corruption Perception Index and Sovereign Credit Rating are nothing short of disastrous. In some of them, Belarus finds itself in close company with Third World countries.

Movement For Freedom invites to a summer school programme entitled 'Belarusian idea and the ways of national consolidation'. The New Eurasia Establishment held in Minsk a USAID-supported workshop Financial Management for Non-profits for directors, finance and program managers from civil society organisations. A senior government official met with opposition activists to discuss problems of alcohol abuse.

Last week, Mario Raviglione, director of WHO's Global TB Programme, singled out Belarus and parts of Russia as being part of a developing "disaster situation" due to the high rates of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. He warned that migrants from these countries pose a threat to Western Europe, where multi-drug resistant tuberculosis​ ​(MDR-TB) is exceedingly rare. The good news is that these fears are exaggerated. Research indicates that post-Soviet migrants account for a mere 1.7% of TB incidence across the EU border.

Last week on Belarus state TV was a week of historical anniversaries. The 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus, Belarusian Independence Day and, finally, the 20th anniversary of election of Alexander Lukashenka all were presented to demonstrate the success of Belarus' current leadership. Commenting upon the situation in Ukraine, journalists often made reference to the situation using terms like “slavic unity”, “refugees from Ukraine”, but also readily noted Kiev’s reluctance to paying off arrears to Gazprom.

The 21st issue of the Political Sphere journal considers the current intellectual situation in Belarus in the context of its authoritarian political regime, the structural problems of the development of the Belarusian state and nation, and the constantly changing regional and global environment. Political Sphere is a leading Belarusian academic journal in the social sciences with a special focus on politics. It has been published by the Institute of Political Studies ‘Political Sphere’ since 2001.​

Over the past couple of weeks there was marked and clear pause in the active working-level engagement between Belarus and many EU countries. Belarus has focused on strengthening its existing ties, while developing new ones in other regions, mostly Latin America and the CIS. With their multilateral policy mandate, Belarusian diplomats have persisted in promoting the country's core initiatives, i.e. traditional family and trafficking in human beings.

Last week, the Ministry of Transport of Belarus and the Belavia national air carrier revealed that they have been negotiating with Boeing. Minsk is proposing to Boeing that it participates in the reconstruction of the Minsk aircraft repair plant and help establish a Boeing maintenance hub in that nation's capital. In May a new Swiss investment project – a railroad engine and car plant - opened in Fanipal near Minsk. At the same time another EU firm – Czech Papcel - received approval to start construction on a major paper mill in Shklou.

New polls suggest that in the current environment Aliaksandr Lukashenka remains the most trusted politician in Belarus but Belarusians want reforms, in the first place of its political system. The recently released political prisoner Ales Bialiatski is meeting with top European politicians.

While Ukraine was preparing to sign the Association Agreement with the EU, Russia was trying to secure the support of Belarus and Kazakhstan in introducing protective measures against Ukrainian goods. Moscow failed to convince its Eurasian partners that Kyiv’s Association Agreement would pose a threat to their economies and had to resort to taking unilateral action for raising customs duties on goods from Ukraine. This case may well represent a model of relations that may come to dominate decision-making in the Eurasian Economic Union.

On 27 June the Ostrogorski Centre launched the latest issue of the Journal of Belarusian Studies during a gathering of the Belarus Research Council in Vilnius. Additionally, Ryhor Astapenia presented the Centre's Belarus Profile project to Belarusian researchers - an online directory of influential people in Belarus. The Belarus Research Council (BRC) is an umbrella organisation that facilitates the development of independent analytical think tanks in Belarus. Established in 2012, BRC is a loose network of Belarusian think tanks, polling agencies and donors supporting social science research in Belarus.

The economy of Belarus is showing signs of rising levels of output with most industries increasing their overall output figures throughout May. At the same time foreign and domestic investment demand are exhibiting signs of recovery. However, this recovery does not itself necessarily signal a return to high output growth. The growth rate is likely to remain weak in the coming months and a new challenge – climbing inflation – might hurt the economy.

According to the United Nations, over 54,400 people have been displaced internally by the conflict in Ukraine. The ongoing turmoil raises the possibility that some Ukrainians will seek refuge in Belarus. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka promised to support any and all Ukrainians in need. However, to date, only 65 Ukrainians have applied for refugee status in Belarus, a small number when compared to the 9,500 Ukrainians seeking official refugee status in Russia.    Despite its relative political stability, only about 891 people have obtained official refuge status in Belarus in 2014. In contrast, over 6,000 Belarusians hold refugee status abroad. To date, the Belarusian regime has blithely encouraged its political opponents to leave the country. And so they did, along with a great number of others who left for economic, rather than, political reasons. 

On 21 June, the Belarusian authorities unexpectedly released one of its most prominent political prisoners, the head of the Viasna Human Rights Centre, Alieś Bialiacki. The EU, US, UN and OSCE welcomed the release as a positive step and called upon Minsk to release its remaining political prisoners. The Belarusian authorities do not recognise that there is any political prisoner problem in Belarus, calling them criminals have earned their sentence for breaking the law. However, in previous years they have demonstrated their readiness to free people in exchange for improved relations with the West or in an attempt deal with Russian pressure.