A flurry of publications and public statements comparing and contrasting Belarus and Ukraine (see EDM, February 18) continues. On February 23, Belarus celebrated the Day of the Homeland’s Defender, a national holiday inherited from the Soviet Union. In his holiday speech, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka stated... MORE

Not a single book about Belarus omits the issue of Belarusians’ deficiency in the area of national consolidation/identity and of perilously close (in a sense of undermining a separate identity) ties with Russia. Yet, recently, two national identity boosters have come along. First and foremost,... MORE

The events in neighboring Ukraine have spawned multiple publications in which Ukraine and Belarus are compared and contrasted and the potential effect of the Ukrainian events on Belarus is analyzed. “Yanukovych may not survive politically even until the 2015 elections,” writes Alexander Klaskovsky, one of... MORE

Two sets of pronouncements cast light on today’s Belarus and at its possible foreseeable future. The first of these was uttered by Oleg Manaev, who was interviewed by an online opposition newspaper (gazetaby.com/cont/art.php?sn_nid=68538?). Manaev is the founder of the Independent Institute for Socio-Economic and Political... MORE

A flurry of pronouncements about a Belarusian “national idea” has continued. Unusually, however, it is not only opposition-minded Belarusians who are now talking publicly about what it means to be a Belarusian; President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has weighed in on this topic as well (see EDM,... MORE

Recently published detailed analysis of Belarus’s economic problems on the Russian analytical portal Regnum (https://www.regnum.ru/news/1752886.html) is couched in stridently negative terms. The highlights include a decline of industrial exports to Russia because of lower (recession-conditioned) demand and heightened competition due to Russia’s accession to the... MORE

The year 2013 was marked by Belarus’s deepening economic dependency on Russia. It became apparent that the generous socio-economic model of the Belarusian state—including heavily subsidized utilities and mortgage loans; free health care and education; a retention of the Soviet-era recreational facilities such as day... MORE

Belarus’s foreign minister, Uladzimir Makei, made noteworthy pronouncements at the summit of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP—which took place in Vilnius, Lithuania, on November 28–29) and at the 20th meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council (December 5–6,... MORE

According to Kirill Koktysh, an ethnic Belarusian and a professor of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, any souring of relations between Russia and Ukraine boosts Russia’s generosity with respect to Belarus. This is because relations with Ukraine are seen as a touchstone for... MORE

Many Russian and Western analysts have assumed that Belarusians and Russians are so similar ethnically that the nearly 1 million Belarusians living in the Russian Federation will inevitably identify with the larger nation and assimilate into it. But in fact, most are retaining their Belarusian... MORE