Latest Articles about Belarus

Language Is National Security in Belarus

On October 23, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka met with a group of Belarusian writers. In any country surrounding Belarus, a meeting like this would probably not be similarly newsworthy. The country has two writers’ unions and a PEN-Center. Only one of these entities, called the Union... MORE

Belarus Is Asserting Its Own Voice

On October 17, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka conducted a 5.5-hour-long press conference for Russian provincial journalists. This was the 12th event of its kind. The first one occurred in 2002, when Lukashenka realized that neither he nor Belarus is a darling of the Moscow media. An... MORE

Putin Steals the Asia-Europe Show—and Brings Big Disappointment

The most recent Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit attracted a sizeable crowd of world leaders to Milan last week (October 16–17), but the formal agenda was overtaken by the efforts to manage the violent conflict between Russia and Ukraine and facilitate dialogue between presidents Vladimir Putin... MORE

Lukashenka’s Rating and Belarusian Identity

The September national survey by the Independent Institute for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS), the most trusted Belarusian polling firm, headquartered in Lithuania, shows that both the electoral rating of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and public trust vested in him have gone up. Whereas in June,... MORE

A Thaw With the West and Its Underpinnings

On September 22, the Belarus-USA Investment Forum was held at the Grand Hyatt hotel in midtown Manhattan. The forum featured speakers such as Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovch, Economy Minister Nikolay Snopkov, Development Bank chairman Sergei Roumas, as well as Minsk-based High Tech Park Director... MORE

A Change in International Relations and a Thaw With the West

Belarusian analysts continue to assess the change in the international order, driven by the crisis in Ukraine, while Belarus’s relations with the West continue to gradually improve. To some extent, these phenomena are inter-related, and Russia’s worsening image in the eyes of the West may... MORE

Between Uncle Sam and ‘Uncle Vova’

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has somewhat softened his rhetoric about the supposed crucial role of the United States in sparking the Ukrainian crisis (see EDM, September 9). On September 9, during his visit to the Minsk Industrial Leather Association, he said that “the root causes of the... MORE