After several months jointly preparing for the Zapad 2017 strategic military exercise, both Minsk and Moscow have used the last few days prior to its commencement (on September 14) to promote a veneer of openness concerning the exercise’s aims and scope. Much of the regional... MORE

Undeniably, Belarus and Russia are culturally close. In and of itself, this closeness is no liability except for its lopsidedness. Russia’s pervasive sway in every critical aspect of Belarusian life, from the economy to language and from historical memory to people’s worldview, keeps in check... MORE

Not only beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In the absence of attention-grabbing cataclysms, the most talked about issue related to Belarus depends on who you ask. Thus, ordinary Belarusians are mostly preoccupied with price hikes, the cost of utilities in particular, and... MORE

The upcoming Zapad 2017 joint exercise by Russian and Belarusian troops in Belarus has sparked concerns that it may be used by Moscow either to carry out a hybrid revolution in Belarus—along the lines of what Vladimir Putin did in Crimea in 2014—or to put... MORE

Russia’s strategic military exercises frequently arouse varying levels of interest in the Western media and the analytical community. The bilateral Belarus-Russia Zapad 2017 (September 14–20), however, has witnessed unprecedented attention and speculation concerning Moscow’s political-military intentions. The Armed Forces of both countries participating in the... MORE

Two developments have been dominating discussions in Belarus in recent weeks. The first of these took place in Grosseto, Italy. On July 21, Violetta Skvortsova of Belarus won the triple jump at Europe’s junior track-and-field championship. During the awards ceremony, the organizers played the anthem... MORE

Minsk is winning over Belarus’s neighbors. “We have stabilized our relations with Belarus… Today, there is no ideological war between our countries,” declared Witold Waszczykowski, the Polish minister of foreign affairs. This statement is impressive, particularly against the backdrop of Poland’s relations with Ukraine, which... MORE

Belarus hosted a joint counter-terrorism exercise with China called United Shield 2017, on July 11–18 (Belta, July 18). It took place at a training field bear Barysau and brought together a rapid response unit of the Interior Troops of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs... MORE

Belarus’s independent voice is growing louder. On June 27, the Belarusian embassy to the United States organized a reception on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. More than 100 American guests participated in the reception, including Deputy Assistant... MORE

Svetlana Alexievich, the 2015 Nobel Prize laureate in literature, gave a speech, on June 27, in Brussels, at the European People’s Party Group’s hearing “Belarusian society: towards a modern political and national identity?” She was one of seven Belarusians at the hearing, the remaining six... MORE