Until 30 June all young Belarusians who want to become political analysts at government institutions can apply for a special competitive program. The organisers of the program say that they are looking for fresh ideas and competent professionals. The program started...
In less than two weeks, the Secretary of the Security Council Leanid Maltsau has to submit his proposal on the optimisation of the law enforcement agencies ("siloviki"). This follows the Presidential Decree No. 168 aimed at reforming the public administration in Belarus. This...
On 19 April Alexander Lukashenka delivered his annual address to the nation and parliament. For more than three hours he has been speaking about priorities on his current political and economic agenda and answered MPs’ questions. Economic modernization, privatisation and...
On 12 April Alexander Lukashenka made his final decision on the public administration reform that he declared last year. He signed Decree No. 168 that aims to optimise the state apparatus and reduce the number of civil servants. The reform did not...
The Belarusian media more and more look like barricade journalism. The state media fiercely fight their non-state colleagues and vice versa. Endless clichés, mutual accusations and the language of hatred often leave little space for decent journalism. The lack of...
Belarus is awaiting reforms to the public administration system, ordered by Alexander Lukashenka last year. It looks like the president’s main motive is to save money. Considerations of efficiency come second. However, the existing system of public administration cannot...
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 Belarusian president has always used press conferences in order to keep in touch with his electorate and demonstrate that he is in good political shape and keeps everything under control. Depending on what happens in the country at...
About a thousand Belarusains received an unusual anonymous SMS text on 4 January. According to the message the National Bank of Belarus had secretly decided to devalue the national currency by more than 60%. It was predicted that the new...
Observers of Belarusian politics have lately noticed increased activism of a political party that is traditionally labelled as pro-governmental. The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Siarhey Haidukevich and his son and also deputy Aleh Haidukevich have recently featured...
The outgoing year of 2012 has left a contradictory record in the modern history of Belarus. It has seen numerous events that came as a real shock for Belarusians and foreign observers - primarily in the economy and politics. At...
The Belarusian government is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. It finds it more and more difficult to perform its daily tasks without resorting to administrative force. This is the major implication of the unprecedented decree that Alexander Lukashenka signed on 7 December. The...
According to The Economist, Belarus occupies the fourth highest place in the world for divorce, behind South Korea, Russia and Aruba. The Belarusian Statistics Agency has recently published fresh data on marriages and divorces in Belarus. It also suggests the growing unpopularity of...
The Centre for Analytical Initiatives of the Liberal Club in Minsk has recently presented the second edition of its research project - Index of Economic Adequacy of Belarus. The researchers found that the vast majority of Belarusian politicians (both pro-government...
Belarus is on the verge of an unprecedented process: a massive layoff of government employees. At least, President Lukashenka has ordered it. According to him, because of the budget constraints the state apparatus will be trimmed by 25-30%. Several...