Shifts in Belarus’s Domestic and Foreign Policies and Its Implications For The Region
You are invited to attend a presentation by Jaroslav Romanchuk, a leading market-oriented Belarusian economist. The presentation is organized by the Baltic Black Sea Initiative (BBSI).
Mr. Romanchuk is the Founder and President of the Minsk-based Research Mises Center, Vice President of the United Civic Party, and the Executive Director of the independent think tank Analytical Center “Strategy.”
He has authored over 1,000 articles and co-authored numerous books on market-based economics and democratic governance, including a handbook that offers an alternative path of Belarusian development with free-market solutions in monetary, taxation, budgetary, social security and privatization issues.
WHEN:
Friday, May 8, 2009
1:00pm-2:00pm (EST)
WHERE:
US-Ukraine Foundation
1701 K Street NW – Suite 903
Washington, DC
The presentation will also be webcast live at: www.usukraine.org/events/belarus050809.shtml
Foreign Policy: An Unwanted Guest
Irina Krasovskaya and David Kramer published a piece in Foreign Policy on the European Union’s recent overtures to Belarus.
David Kramer was most recently Assistant Secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labor and, before that, a deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, in the George W. Bush administration. Irina Krasovskaya is president of the We Remember Foundation.
They argue that the European Union’s policy of engaging the Belarusian regime is counterproductive, because so far it has only led to deterioration of human rights situation in Belarus. Here is what they conclude:
The Lukashenko regime continues to engage in human rights abuses even as relations with the West warm up… Lukashenko is a master at playing Russia and the West off of each other, delivering little to neither… Further Western engagement with Belarus makes sense, but only so long as the Lukashenko government takes more positive steps in the area of human rights. It takes two to tango.
Read the full text at Foreignpolicy.com
