By pursuing the short-term profit goals of Russian oligarchs out of the conviction that this will promote Russia’s interest rather than considering the possible impact of such an approach on Russian national interests, Moscow is alienating Ukraine and Belarus, two Slavic neighbors it has long... MORE

Regardless of political atmospherics, Belarus is a proactive participant in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Northern Distribution Network (NDN) for logistical support to NATO forces in Afghanistan. The NDN includes several overland routes, starting from the Baltic seaports of Klaipeda, Riga and Tallinn, ramifying... MORE

In a surprising move, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka did not end up going to Kiev, Ukraine, to celebrate the 1025th anniversary of the baptism of Rus, a common legacy of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, solemnly celebrated in all the three East Slavic countries (https://naviny.by/rubrics/politic/2013/07/30/ic_articles_112_182507/). Observers... MORE

The Belarusian parliament has selectively revived the so-called “golden share” rule that applied between 1997 and 2008. According to that rule, the state’s representatives on the board of directors of any privately owned enterprise could block various decisions made by its management team. The existence... MORE

After two heated discussions at the European Parliament’s (EP) Foreign Affairs Committee, Justas Paleckis, EP rapporteur on Belarus, modified his draft report (see EDM, June 14). The statement that in 2012 the human rights situation in Belarus improved was deleted. The situation is now described... MORE

Two identical texts in English (https://www.eurasiareview.com/28062013-belarus-and-the-eurasian-union-incremental-integration-analysis/) and in Russian (https://naviny.by/rubrics/economic/2013/06/29/ic_articles_113_182193/) specify pluses and minuses of Belarus’s involvement in the Russian-led Eurasian integration project. In the opinion of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS), a Minsk-based think tank funded by the West, the biggest plus... MORE

In his play “Tuteishiya” (Locals), Janka Kupala (1882–1942), Belarus’s most famous poet and playwright, depicts two characters that are mirror reflections of each other. Whereas the Western Scientist speaks Polish and claims that “so-called Belarus” is in fact Poland, the Eastern Scientist speaks Russian and... MORE

According to the March 2013 national survey by IISEPS, a polling firm funded by the West, the opposition is trusted by 13.1 percent of Belarusians (https://iiseps.org/old/press7.html). Internecine fights within the opposition are one of the reasons for this low rating. Their past fights, however, pale... MORE

Four years ago, Russia conducted an exercise called Zapad (West) 2009 to test the efficacy of its, then, new military reforms as well as its doctrine and strategy. Today, that exercise is most remembered for its culmination, namely the simulation of a tactical nuclear strike... MORE

In his essay, “A Map of the World: The Return of Geopolitics,” Sergei Karaganov, a Russian pundit, analyzes the newly acquired legitimacy of geopolitics that, until recently, used to be “provincial,” “politically incorrect,” and even perceived by some as a vestige of Nazi ideology. Karaganov... MORE