Common Economic Space

Belarusian Officials Criticise Eurasian Integration

On 31 October Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Uladzimir Siamashka, while speaking in parliament, claimed that Belarus was suffering losses due to systemic exemptions in the Russian-dominated Customs Treaty and Common Economic Space. These losses might increase - in January Russia is introducing a...

6 May 2013

Painful Lessons of Eurasian Integration

On 25 April 2013 Tatsiana Matoryna, Director of the Brest Stocking Plant — one of the largest apparel industry companies in the former Soviet Union— blamed sharp decreases in the plant’s sales on Belarus’ economic integration with Russia and...

9 January 2013

Belarus Leads the CIS in 2013

Belarus assumed the presidency in the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS) on 1 January 2013. This is the international organisation which was intended to replace the Soviet Union in 1991. For politicians who formed their vision in the Soviet Union, the...

21 December 2012

Chinese Enclave in the Heart of Belarus?

650 thousand Chinese will be building an industrial park near Minsk and they have already obtained working visas. Yaraslau Ramanchuk – an ex-candidate for Belarusian presidency – has received this information from his own sources of information. Gazeta.ru, major Russian online media, also mentioned...

10 February 2012

The Lie of Full Employment

The Belarusian government prides itself on having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. But the official statistics do not reflect the realities on the ground. The actual number of unemployed people is much higher than the...

30 January 2012

Belarus as the Biggest Beneficiary Of The Eurasian Integration?

On 24 January the Eurasian Development Bank released an interesting report on the prospects of Eurasian economic integration. The report presented the findings of a research project conducted by a group of Russian and Ukrainian economists under the aegis...