

Belarus displayed modest but stable growth during past couple of months. However, future prospects for growth remain uncertain, given the deteriorating economic situation in Russia along with the desire of the authorities to carry out several growth stimulating policies. Moreover, there...

The Belarusian authorities did not take kindly to a Belarusian schoolboy calling on President Lukashenka to take the Ice Bucket Challenge. A mysterious new type of shrimp from Belarus is turning up in Russian supermarkets and a Belarusian citizen...

The gathering on the Ukrainian crisis meditated by Belarus and held on 26 August in Minsk became one of the most important recent global events. The Belarusian government tried to make maximum use of this opportunity to promote its own...

Late in the evening on 29 July Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko phoned his Belarusian counterpart and proposed him to host a meeting of a tripartite contact group on Ukraine. The negotiations' format included OSCE, Russia and Ukraine. Alexander Lukashenka...

President Alexander Lukashenka instructed his ambassadors to prepare to withstand and counter soft-power pressure from global players, a category that implicitly includes Russia. Meanwhile, Minsk is getting ready to host talks between the parties in conflict...

Belarus has asserted its displeasure with Russia's new 'Russian world' policy while maintaining its solidarity with Ukraine. All of this unfolded against a background of strengthening ties with "New Europe". The Foreign Ministry has resorted to Soviet-style meetings as a tool to promote...

Belarus Digest is launching Belarus Foreign Policy Digest which will overview the most important foreign policy developments related to Belarus. Igar Gubarevich, who served as Counsellor at the Belarusian embassy in Paris in 2003 - 2006 and held several other...

Economic performance during first two months of 2014 has been rather disappointing. First, almost all industries reduced their output which led to a decline in GDP by 1.6% year-on-year in January-February. Second, Belarus has faced new challenges on foreign markets, which are a consequence of capital...

According to official forecasts, an improved climate for foreign trade and accelerated economic growth await Belarus in 2014. The growth of the country's negative trade balance in 2013 created additional pressure on the foreign exchange market and the dynamics of its foreign reserves. Improving...

In July, GDP growth somehow gained momentum, but was still very modest and difficult to place confidence in. Shrinking external demand is one of the core problems for the national economy, although the authorities attempt to compensate these losses...

On 22 March Belarus state leader completed his visit to Singapore where he was trying to find new markets. He spent a week in Indonesia and Singapore, together with a delegation of 80 people. The state of the Belarusian economy is deteriorating,...

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...