Section: Belarus Digest (Belarus)
Threats to Belarus, Ukrainian border, cooperation with Kazakhstan – Belarus Security Digest
Minsk wants to maintain its own position in the latest confrontation between NATO and Russia in the region. Various Belarusian officials state that they see no immediate threat to Belarus from NATO, but rather from a possible internal conflict like those that occurred in Ukraine and Arab countries. The Belarusian government is more preoccupied...
Threats to Belarus, problems on the Ukrainian border, cooperation with Kazakhstan – Belarus Security Digest
Minsk wants to maintain its own position in the latest confrontation between NATO and Russia in the region. Various Belarusian officials state that they see no immediate threat to Belarus from NATO, but rather from a possible internal conflict like those that occurred in Ukraine and Arab countries. The Belarusian government is more preoccupied...
Belarus-EU Relations: Reaching the Limit?
Chief Belarusian and EU diplomats Uladzimir Makei and Federica Mogherini Recently Belarus was considered a relative success story of the Eastern Partnership – no territorial disputes, no broken promises, only gradual positive dynamic in relations with the European Union (EU). However, the intensity of Belarus-EU cooperation seems to have reached...
EU and Belarus: All politics to be gradual
A. Lukashenka in Italy in May 2015. Photo: president.gov.by After the 2015 October presidential elections Belarus gears up for a parliamentary one on September 11 with little expectations of democratic improvement. Albeit authoritarian, Belarus is both a functional state and society. The EU is learning to live with this reality due to tensions in...
Ostro.by, Nations in Transit 2016, Turkey, Karabakh – Ostrogorski Centre Digest
Conference on Belarusian Studies in London. Photo credit: Yaraslau Kryvoi. In April analysts of the Ostrogorski Centre focused on Belarus’ continuing attempts to establish relations with a variety of external actors while further formalising its relations with Russia. By signing the agreement on the Single Air Defence System with Russia,...
Belarus Cracks Down on Pro-Ukraine Donbass Fighters
Trial of Taras Avataraŭ, a fighter of Right Sector. Photo: tut.by On 18 April the Belarusian authorities launched the trial of Taras Avataraŭ, a fighter from the Right Sector battalion who participated in the Ukraine conflict. Earlier this month they introduced amendments to legislation which allow prison sentences for those fighting in foreign...
Chernobyl: Fact and Legacy
Photo credit: Nigel Roberts April 26 this year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, when tests at the power plant there went calamitously wrong. Then in the Soviet Union and now in Ukraine, the consequences for Belarus have been disastrous. The accident occurred a generation ago, yet it continues to blight lives...
Testing the Waters: High-Level EBRD Delegation Visits Belarus
The removal of sanctions against Belarus earlier this year has led to increased interest from institutional investors such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Alain Pilloux, Acting Vice President of this major development bank visited Belarus last week as a part of a delegation, which met with Belarusian officials,...
Why Belarus KGB Detained the Country’s Former Top Businesman
Former Belarusian Oligarch Chyzh and KGB Chairman Vakulchyk On 11 March, the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) detained Yury Chyzh, one of Belarus’ richest businessmen who used to be on friendly terms with President Alexander Lukashenka. The European Union once viewed him as “Lukashenka’s purse” and he was on the...
Belarus Reality Check, Life After Sanctions – Digest Of Belarusian Analytics
Photo: svaboda.org Over the last weeks Belarusian analysts widely discussed the removal of EU sanctions and possible scenarios of further rapprochement, as well as benefits for Belarus. The surveys demonstrate that Belarus citizens became worse off, yet they are not going to channel the falling incomes into mass protests. Green activists reveal...
