BELARUSIAN DIASPORA ANGRY ABOUT WESTERN CREDITS

. The Belarusian government reportedly hopes to receive the equivalent of $37.5 million in credit from the European Union before the end of this year. (16) The EU will make its decision by the end of November, in conjunction with an International Monetary Fund mission that is near completion. The funds will be used primarily to cover the state budget deficit. Any dispatching of funds to Minsk officialdom is likely to anger Belarusian emigres in the West, however. Last month, the diaspora began a drive to bring the IMF’s attention to civil rights abuses and the absence of meaningful reform in Belarus. In a letter protesting the September announcement of a large IMF loan, ethnic Belarusian spokesmen said that US citizens don’t want their tax dollars propping up the Soviet-style, anti-democratic regime of President Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Russian-Abkhazia Deal Dashes Tbilisi’s Hopes.