Reflections on the future. Part 1

Fri, 05/24/2013 - 13:15

In the program of the Moscow TV provider AKADO channel 123 is reserved for "Belarus TV". If you press this button in the evening, you will see the program "Panorama". It's interesting and entertaining... It should be noted that here I have only professional interest, as AKADO has nearly a thousand TV channels and Belarusian channel looks like a remake of the well-known channel "Nostalgia", where you can see the "New Year Light" of 1960-1980's, the "Travellers Club" and the program "Time" with the same L. Brezhnev.

Storm in a bog

Sat, 05/18/2013 - 15:26

Last week two events agitated usually very static Belarusian political market, which is similar to a quiet and stuffy bog. Small political storm suddenly raised very important issue of geopolitical orientation ("geopolitical bottom") of the Belarusian state. It gave an opportunity to ensure once again that a split between East and West is still the basis of internal political conflict in the Republic of Belarus. On the one hand, this split allows the opposition to take more or less coherent and clear political position in the Euro-Atlantic format, and on the other hand the ruling group has an opportunity to manoeuvre constantly and literally at the «cutting- edge of the geopolitical needle», trying to build its own pseudo-independence policy.

Manifesto of degradation

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 20:56

April 19, 2013 will unlikely become a «red date» in the Belarusian calendar. At the best case, the future textbook of modern history of Belarus will have only two lines with the description of the Address of the first Belarusian president to the Parliament; an attempt to stop firm and completely objective process of degradation and dissolution of his power. 2.5 hours of continuous monologue in the Parliament was dedicated to this super-task.

Things are in a bad way

Sun, 05/12/2013 - 21:06

Memorandum between corporations «Gazprom» and «Europol Gaz» on construction the second stage of the pipeline «Yamal – Europe» in 2018-2019 was signed in St. Petersburg on April 5, 2013. It should be reminded that two days before this event, on Wednesday, April 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller to study the issue of construction of another gas pipeline to Europe. It was about a new «pipe», close to Gazprom's pipeline «Yamal-Europe», which is crossing the Republic of Belarus from east to west since mid-1990s.

Nuclear dialogue

Wed, 04/24/2013 - 12:48

Last week, the world's main news channels showed rare demonstration in the center of Seoul, where South Koreans called for a dialogue and concessions to Pyongyang, and demanded the US Secretary of State John Kerry to visit  North Korea immediately... North Korea TV gleefully shows these demonstrations, which prove the «correctness» and «victorious» of the strategy of «Great commander» Kim Jong-un («New Star», «Brilliant Comrade», «Genius among geniuses», DPRK Marshall), who forced the whole world to listen to his opinion without a single shot...

"Cultural Revolution" in the Belarusian style

Sat, 04/13/2013 - 13:45

Forty-seven years ago, on March 16, 1966, in the midst of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, well-known military and political leader of the People's Republic of China Luo Zhuytsin jumped from the third floor. Army General, former Minister of Public Security and the hero of the Korean War became a victim of personnel repressions, which were started by Mao Zedong after the failure of the policy of the "Great Leap Forward."

Tramp

Sun, 04/07/2013 - 02:23

Curious maneuver of the Belarusian Air Force One over the azure waters of the Indian Ocean is beginning to attract international attention. Presidential "Boeing" with the national emblem of the Republic of Belarus is like a nomad's caravan or pirate frigate with a team, which gone mad from lack of money. Today, when the Belarusian president holds negotiations with the sheiks and emirs of the United Arab Emirates, Vladimir Makey is apparently discussing new routes of the Belarusian "Flying Dutchman."

Every day is not Sunday

Fri, 03/22/2013 - 16:55

The meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Belarus and Russia on March 15 coincided with the snow storm, which battered the Belarusian capital. Public transport was stopped. At one point, it seemed that even the subway was full of snow. In this situation, one of the Minsk’s FM-radio station took on the job of organizer and coordinator of rescue operations. No doubt, it was the civil feat, as the city authorities, at least in the initial stage of the storm, were passive, and the Internal affairs bodies did not prevent just incredible jam on Oktiabrskya subway station. For a wonder, the tragedy on Nemiga (30 May 1999) did not repeat.

Integration threats. Part 2

Sun, 03/17/2013 - 13:15

On August 31, 1990 at the ceremony of signing of the merger agreement, German President Richard von Weizsacker said in his speech: «If you want to unite - you should learn to share». It is clear that the process of merger of German state, more or less successfully completed by the end of the 1990s, is radically different from the economic and political integration of the former Soviet Union republics. In addition, there is no aim to incorporate former Soviet republics as a part of the Union State. There is no question about the revival of a united state even within the framework of current project of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) ( the final version of the Treaty, establishing the EEU, must be presented to the heads of states iwithin a year - in May 2014). Opponents of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space see this project as an attempt to revive the Soviet Union, and we discussed this theme in the first part of this article.

The task for the spring 2013

Tue, 03/12/2013 - 17:16

Of course, Alexander Lukashenko's nineteenth presidential spring began not by the Gregorian calendar, but by the political calendar: ambush in Sochi came to nothing, he had to return to Minsk to open the cycling World Championship. However, Belarus did not win any medals ...

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