27 posts
Belarus Got Into Energy Trap
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The issue of oil customs duties has been left outside the framework of the Customs Union, and Belarusian authorities have finally surrendered to Moscow. READ MORE...
Belarus’ Aleksander Lukashenko, European Chessmaster
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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — When Aleksander Lukashenko, the authoritarian president of Belarus, recently began a campaign to intimidate and punish members of the country’s disobedient Polish community, he opened a new front not only with neighbori...
Poland threatens Belarus with EU action after crackdown
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Poland has threatened to freeze progress in EU-Belarus relations and to lobby the IMF to cut off aid following a crackdown on ethnic Poles. READ MORE...
Belarus’ Oil Sector: A Target of Opportunity for Moscow
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Russia’s threat to abolish its oil subsidies to Belarus aim not only to punish Minsk for its recent rapprochement with the European Union, but also to put the oil processing and oil transit in Belarus under the control of Russian companies.&nbs...
Customs Union with Russia and Belarus Raises Doubts in Kazakhstan
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Fielding questions from viewers on state-controlled television channels on November 13 Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced that on November 27 the leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan would gather in Minsk to sign final a...
Berlusconi, a planetary man of politics, visits Belarus
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It passed largely unnoticed by the outside world, but perhaps the most intriguing event in European foreign policy last week was a visit paid to Belarus by Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi. The European Union has kept Belarus at arm’s length...
Appeasement in our time: Berlusconi goes to Belarus
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BERLIN — This year has been full of celebrations of the peaceful revolutions of 1989, arguably the most important advance of freedom, democracy, and human rights in history. But this year has also seen rapid European rapprochement with (and som...
Can Belarusians Expect Fair Play on the Issue of Visas?
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The thesis that the EU is perceived by citizens of Eastern Europe in the light of its visa policy towards them is hardly a new one. Indeed, for most applicants, a meeting with a consular officer constitutes their first opportunity to come face to fac...
Swedish EU Council Presidency and Belarus: The Challenge has been taken.
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© Grundig, Minsk Cafe Babel It’s been eight years since Sweden’s last EU Presidency in 2001. Many things have happened over this time: EU eastwards enlargement, the Constitutional Treaty (Lisbon treaty) was rejected twice, EU plunged into a seri...
Stefan Eriksson: “I think Belarusian side knows our expectations well”
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Sweden replaced Czech Republic in its position of a head country of European Union. On this subject the ambassador of Sweden in Belarus Stefan Eriksson answered the questions. READ MORE...
Belarus leader says will not beg Russia for loans
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Belarus`s president declared an end on May 29 to "begging" to Russia and told his government to ignore Moscow`s decision to shelve a $500 million loan and turn elsewhere to find credits. Alyaksandr Lukashenka made his comments a day after R...
Belarus leaving the Russian Sphere of Influence?
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Russia has feared that the Eastern Partnership will make the EU the dominant power in its post-Soviet sphere of influence. One of the key states in Russia's sphere of influence, especially since the Orange Revolution (which isn't looking too stable i...
Martynau: “Essentially our attitude to Eastern Partnership initiative is positive”
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Belarusian Foreign Minister Syarhei Martynau stated that Belarus finds it important that the Eastern Partnership program offered by the European Union provides for equal partnership. “Essentially Belarus...
“I hope that we can all agree that comprehending and condoning are not the same thing”
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Graham in his opening address to a seminar on the prospects and expectations for Belarus, European Parliament Brussels, March, 31 2009. “It is a pleasure to open the discussion this afternoon. Your panel brings together experts from COEST, th...
Belarus: Economic crisis and the Russian bear factor
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Perhaps I’m getting Marxist in my old age, but would it be wrong to suggest that economics is driving most things political in Belarus these days? That’s to say, does the world economic crisis explain the very modest gestures in the dir...
Welcome, dictator Lukashenko!
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bIt seems to be enough to release a few prisioners for the European Union to a href="http://euobserver.com/9/26922"welcome/a again the last dictator on the continent./bbr /br /The travel ban on Belarussian dictator Lukashenko is only lifted until Apr...
After the Belarus elections: 100% Lukashenko (updated)
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bNot surprisingly, neither for a href="http://julienfrisch.blogspot.com/2008/09/belarus-elections-on-sunday.html"me/a nor for a href="http://the8thcircle.com/2008/09/27/going-through-the-motions-belarus-stages-parliamentary-elections-sept-28-2008/"ot...
Going through the motions: Belarus stages parliamentary elections Sept. 28, 2008
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[UPDATE 2008-09-29]: Yeap. The title deliberately uses the word stages. Omitting this verb may lead to a false conclusion that having elections is a sign that perhaps life in Belarus, a dictatorship bordering the EU, is not as bad as they say. ...
Belarus: "Elections" on Sunday
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------br /br /Read now the follow-up on the a href="http://julienfrisch.blogspot.com/2008/09/after-belarus-elections-100-lukashenko.html" elections in Belarus/a after the vot...
Belarus parliament election is September 28: will anything change?
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Elections for the lower house of Belarus’ bicameral parliament will take place at the end of September, writes David Marples for the Eurasia Daily Monitor. It is important that we pay attention. Here is another opportunity to encourage freer e...
Belarus going nuclear again?
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Crunched under increased energy prices and internationally isolated (Venezuela and Russia are the few exceptions), Belarus is planning to build a nuclear power plant to meet its energy needs, writes Anya Loukianova for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scie...
