Последние новости Belarus

История с задержанием российских бойцов ЧВК в Белоруссии – демонстративный акт предательства со стороны Александра Лукашенко. Об этом в своем блоге пишет известный российский военкор Дмитрий Стешин.

Administrative Assistant, GS5 — Minsk, Belarus #102885, Open to nationals of Belarus only!The Administrative Assistant is accountable for procedural and some specialized communications, operational and administrative support services.

Aliaksandr Lukašenka revealed Friday that a total of 15 people had been arrested in the Belgazprombank case opened by the State Control Committee`s Department for Financial Investigations under his order.“Frankly speaking, I don’t know the details yet,” Mr. Lukašenka told reporters during his visit to Polack, Viciebsk region.

We have always believed and are still convinced that the economic future of Belarus depends on whether structural economic reforms will be carried out. Our message remains unchanged: today, structural reforms are even more important and relevant than it was in the past. The Belarusian economic model the country chose around 2003 is currently under severe stress. Belarus has consumed more than it has produced for a long time and thereby making significant progress in terms of improving the living standards of people. There are not so many ways to close the gap. The country is like a family. If you consume more than you earn, this is due to the depletion of your own savings and reserves, external borrowing or help from other countries. The ability to use all these options has recently been declining. The state of balance leaves much to be desired: household savings are running out, and it is more difficult for the country to borrow from its traditional lenders. As a result, the country has to live within its means: it cannot afford the previous level of state support for agricultural enterprises, subsidizing heating services for the population. The need for structural transformations became much more acute in 2017 when foreign debt reached 130% of exports than in 2003 when it was only 30%. The Roadmap is a process of in-depth technical discussions and consultations of the World Bank and the authorities in 2016–2017, and then in 2018–2019. The roadmap includes five chapters. The first and most important is the real economy. We focus on the situation with state-owned enterprises and competition policy. State-owned enterprises use national capital less effectively than private ones. They create a debt burden that increases the need for borrowing, including external borrowing. Economic growth is impossible without the effective use of capital. If Belarus continues to borrow outside the country in order to support its state-owned enterprises, its position will remain very fragile. The World Bank does not insist on large-scale privatization. Some businesses will work better if they become private. Others may well remain state-owned, be restructured and made subject to market discipline. Some businesses will have to be closed down. Another chapter of the roadmap is social protection. Belarus needs a broad and effective unemployment protection program. Expenditures on unemployment benefits in Belarus amount to 0.006% of GDP. The cost of targeted social assistanc...

«When [Russian] parent companies withdraw part of their net profit, they do not confront with our agreements with Russian businesses, Belarusian and international laws. However, it would be desirable of profit made here is directed in the first place at the development of production and capacity, which create this profit. Re-investment should be taking place in the first place,» Myasnikovich said. Talking about the Belarus-Russia relations, he stressed that there is no need to revise the agreement on the union state of Belarus and Russia. In the view of Myasnikovich, the Belarusian and Russian working groups that have been negotiating those matters could have all the issues finalized by 8 December. There is no need to introduce a single currency either because there are no equal conditions for economic entities and no unified legislation. «It will simply make no sense. It could even be harmful,» Myasnikovich said.

Belarus jumped impressive 14 places to be named the 72nd most innovative country. The Global Innovation Index 2019 released on Wednesday says that despite signs of slowing economic growth, innovation continues to blossom. Switzerland was named the most innovative country in the world, a position it has held since 2011, followed by Sweden, the U.S., the Netherlands, and the U.K., Finland, Denmark, Singapore.

According to the Russian media Kommersant, it was known about the pollution of Russian oil by organochlorine in Druzhba pipeline two weeks before Belneftekhim filed the relevant complaint. According to the publication, the Volgograd oil refinery of Lukoil recorded harmful impurities on April 4. This lasted until April 12. There was an appeal to the enterprise Transneft-Privolga in this case. Both Transneft and Lukoil acknowledged that there had been such a problem, but it was not related to the subsequent problems at the Druzhba pipeline. How organochlorine compounds could have got into oil was not explained. A Kommersant source claims that it's standard practice to supply oil to refineries with a slight excess of organochlorine content. On April 19, the Belarusian side reported that the Druzhba pipeline had poor quality oil (the content of organochlorine was many times higher than the permissible norm). The transit of oil to Europe via Belarus was stopped. Interestingly, Russia considered that oil was polluted on purpose (according to the investigation, it was done to conceal the theft) and initiated a criminal case. Due to the fact that the polluted oil spoils the process equipment at the refineries, Belarusians are waiting for compensation, but the exact amount of losses is still unknown.

The governmental problem in Ukraine ‘has been more or less solved’ after the recent presidential and parliamentary elections, Lukashenka claimed. It is essential that the situation in Ukraine is stabilized and the Belarusian President is expecting Brussels to render assistance. “I am asking you to pass this signal to the European Union no matter how difficult it may be for you now when you are leaving for another country (Viktorin will represent the EU interests in Armenia): Ukraine needs support,” Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s press service quotes the President. Kiev is oriented on Brussels more than on Moscow or Minsk. That is why the European Union that said “A”, should also say “B” and support the Ukrainian people now.

And a 39-year-old former collective farm director with a deep, nasal voice and a knack for populist pronouncements won the first — and so far only — democratic presidential election in Belarus. Alyaksandr Lukashenka was sworn in on July 20, 1994, beginning the first of five presidential terms — and counting. Europe and the world have undergone startling transformations over the last quarter-century but the presence of Lukashenka has been a constant. Or has it? The wily leader of this resource-poor nation of 10 million bordering Russia, Ukraine, and three European Union and NATO countries has proven endlessly flexible in his constancy, turning his country into a textbook example of adaptive authoritarianism. To the surprise of most observers, the political neophyte Lukashenka proved from the beginning to be an adroit politician with formidable instincts. At a turbulent time he tapped a vein of conservatism in Belarus, whose citizens overwhelmingly voted against the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1991 referendum and have often sought stability but had to settle for stagnation. He moved quickly to lay the foundations of the authoritarian system that has become entrenched under his rule by holding a constitutional referendum in 1996 that extended his term to 2001, gave his decrees the force of law, and gave him virtually complete control over the state budget. With these powers, he quickly established personal control over all key institutions — the judiciary, election commissions, unions, law enforcement and security agencies, all major media, and so on.

«For objective reasons, i.e. contaminated oil, we had to use oil that we extract locally to keep our refineries running. Disrupted supplies of Russian oil have affected our export statistics this year — minus $800 million against last year. Obviously, it was very difficult to cover this gap at the cost of other sectors,» the minister admitted. Euroradio reported earlier that on 19 April Belnaftakhim detected sudden deterioration of Russian crude oil's quality in the Druzhba pipeline. Both Belarusian refineries — in Mazyr and Navapolack — had to reduce their load and suffered losses. Several other countries served by the Druzhba pipeline — Poland, Germany and Ukraine — would refuse from contaminated Russian oil. Clean oil reached the border of Belarus via the Druzhba pipeline on 2 June only.

«Today we have a program. This is more or less a strategic document. And today we have a big volume or, to put it in plain language, a heap of current problems. The Group and the governments see these problems. And we have developed a program, which, according to government estimates, has been agreed upon by 80-90%,» says Alyaksandr Lukashenka. What are these contentious issues or «current problems»? In fact, there are quite a few of them. If we talk about the main issues, it is compensation for the Russian tax maneuver, determination of the gas price for Belarus for the next year, payment of long promised Russian loans. All these «controversial issues» from Moscow, from the representatives of the Russian government, were answered by the following: «First, integration, then...». It seemed that after the talks between the leaders of Belarus and Russia in St. Petersburg, the question of what would come «first» was removed from the agenda, but... The Forum of Regions ended, and the leaders went home, but «current problems» reminded of themselves. «Tax maneuver is a sovereign right of Russia, so it's unlikely to be correct to talk about any „compensation“ for Minsk, we may talk about possible assistance to Belarus in mitigating the consequences of its introduction,» said Deputy Foreign Minister Grigori Karasin to RIA Novosti on July 19. According to Associate Professor of Political Science at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Kirill Koktysh, such a development of events was to be expected. After all, Russia's goal today is to limit any financial support to Belarus. «It will be very profitable for Russia today to reduce the amount of money, which it used to give to Belarus, retaining the existing status of relations. The tactics is simple: pay a little less for the existing union. From Moscow, it sounds like: „First integration, then negotiations on gas prices. The same applies to Russian loans or compensation for tax maneuver. Minsk says that this is unacceptable for Belarus. In Moscow, they rub their hands: “Well, then, no loans and compensation, and pay as much for gas as we tell you! If nothing is done, if there are no counter-proposals and initiatives from Minsk, the Russian government will be able to implement this game. After all, when you remain just an object, you do not offer anything, you do not make any moves in response and just say „this can't be right, it's wrong,“ it won't work, because everyone will play in their favor,...

«Today there are no obstacles to closer dialogue not only on economic but also political matters. Belarus is ready for this. Let us move forward in this direction, without waiting for any kind of event: be it parliamentary or presidential elections. I think our relations are more important than any political campaigns in Belarus or in your countries,” Lukashenka said. The head of state highlighted Andrea Wiktorin's great contribution to the development of relations between Belarus and the European Union. He also expressed gratitude for the financial support that the EU provides to the projects in Belarus, including those to develop infrastructure. Andrea Wiktorin, on her part, said that over the past few years Belarus and the European Union have been able to build a relationship of trust. “We engage in an open dialogue on political themes, economic issues and also on specific, individual matters such as trade, customs, and so on,” she said. Andrea Wiktorin, the current head of the EU Delegation to Belarus, has been nominated as head of the EU Delegation to Armenia. The designated new Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Belarus is German diplomat Dirk Schuebel who currently heads the EEAS Russia Division.

He also said that last year the trade turnover between the countries increased by 9.4%, mainly due to supplies from Russia. This year's trade volumes are slightly below last year's levels. Syamashka believes it will be good if we manage to exceed last year's level. Elaborating on the discrimination of Belarusian products in the Russian market, he mentioned that last year the supply of milk from Belarus to Russia decreased, and this year this situation is still the same. The Russian market is fully or partially closed for 62 Belarusian dairy companies today. About 40 meat processing plants and eight fish processing plants found themselves in the same conditions. «It's nonsense, it shouldn't be like this. Our products are normal and have an appropriate and well-deserved reputation in the Russian market,» the diplomat said, outraged. There are also problems with the supply of Belarusian equipment to Russia. For example, exports of Gomselmash have decreased by 40%. «It is a totally competitive product, but there are barriers,» stated Syamashka.

“Our Union Treaty will turn 20 this December. I believe we can’t leave any unsolved issue beyond that date. We are pressed for time. What shall we say when we celebrate the anniversary? There will be nothing for us to say if we fail to resolve all the remaining issues and don’t sign the program shaping the strategy of our joint actions,” President Lukashenko said in St. Petersburg on 18 July. “Therefore, I suggest we sort out all issues before that date within the Supreme State Council and adopt a program that will define our action strategy and resolve current problems,” he added. The Belarusian leader also pointed out that people of both countries had long been looking forward to the presidents to make specific decisions.

In the second quarter of 2019, the IT sector ranked second (12.4% of the total number of vacancies), second only to sales. Programming, Development and Engineering traditionally headed the list of the most popular specializations among IT applicants and employers. Software Testing, for the first time in a long time, got into the top 5. Competition in IT is stable since the end of 2018 – 2.8 resumes for 1 vacancy. QA-engineers, Java-developers and PHP-developers became the most demanded in the 2nd quarter, as well as in the 1st quarter. Below are the most popular positions with salary analytics.

‘The tax maneuver’ is “Russia’s sovereign right so it is not right to discuss any ‘compensation’”, Russian deputy Foreign Minister Yegor Karasin told ria.ru. It is only possible to talk about ‘some facilitation of the consequences for Belarus’, he noted. This issue is being worked on and the decision will be ‘complex’, Karasin said. All attempts to assess the situation are untimely, he thinks. A compensation for the tax maneuver may only be given to Belarus after ‘the joint approach to integration is defined’, Russian senior vice PM and Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov said earlier. Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin have recently met in Saint Petersburg and agreed to decide all points in Belarus-Russia relations by the end of 2019.

The report was published by the United Nations, Emerging Europe writes. Countries in the report were evaluated on 17 key criteria for sustainable development, including eliminating poverty and hunger, establishing quality education, providing access to clean water and sanitation, promoting responsible consumption and production, having access to a decent workplace and contributing to the economic growth. Belarus appears in Top 25, according to EE, and neighbors Croatia (22nd) and Latvia (24th). Other countries in Top 25 are Estonia (10th), Slovenia (12nd), Croatia (22nd), Hungary (25th), while Montenegro closes the index, ranking only 87th. Four years after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, no country is on track to meet all the goals. Overall, emerging Europe’s countries obtain their best performance when it comes to erasing poverty and promoting affordable and clean energy. For instance, the leader of the ranking Czech Republic scored best in the No Poverty index, having already met the criteria for achieving this goal. However, major challenges remain in the area of Climate Action, although only Latvia performed slightly better. Still, compared to other regions, when it comes to the rule of law, peace, justice, and strong institutions, CEE lags behind, due to relatively high perceived corruption in some countries, poor freedom of speech or insecurity.

The letter says that as a result of the bad quality oil getting into the Belarusian main pipeline system, the transportation of raw materials to Adamava and Brody was suspended. So far, the transportation in the direction of Adamava has been carried out partially. Due to such force majeure, the Belarusian company lost $23.7 million. The losses were calculated taking into account additional revenues from oil transportation in the reverse direction. Consequently, the volumes of transportation decreased and the level of current tariffs does not allow to cover operational costs linked to the maintenance of the main oil pipeline facilities, as well as the implementation of the technical re-equipment program in 2019. The Russian Transneft has not yet commented on the proposals of the Belarusian side. In April, the Russian oil polluted with chlorides entered the pipeline system in Belarus. In this regard, the transit of raw materials to Europe was stopped on April 24. Supplies of clean oil later resumed, but Belarus still has to clear its pipeline system of substandard oil and this process will only end in mid-August. The annual volume of Russian oil transit through Belarus is about 50 million tons. The proposal to raise tariffs was made in mid-April, and Minsk explained it by the need to preserve the environmental safety of pipelines. However, Russia did not support this proposal, citing its lack of justification. Then the issue of tariff increase was overshadowed after the polluted oil incident.

Lukashenko likely thought hosting the games would be an opportunity to rally Belarusians around his leadership. Instead, his country is feeling increasingly anxious amid mounting tensions with Russia. Russian president Vladimir Putin's attendance for the closing ceremony on June 30 didn't calm the situation. Ever since winning the presidential election in 1994, Lukashenko has ruled the country with an iron fist, obsessed with staying in power. He disappeared several opponents and critics in the late 1990s. In 2006, he resorted to fraud to secure victory in the presidential election and cracked down violently against his opponents. The United States and European Union in turn slapped sanctions on him and his regime. After Lukashenko released all the political prisoners in 2008, the West eased sanctions; they reimposed sanctions after another bad election and crackdown in 2010. They lifted them almost entirely after the 2015 elections, which did not see a repeat of the crackdown in previous elections; this easing of sanctions also came against the backdrop of Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine. Before Putin, the doddering Boris Yeltsin was Lukashenko's Russian counterpart, and Lukashenko was convinced he could outmanoeuvre Yeltsin. Lukashenko thought a union treaty between Minsk and Moscow signed in December 1999 would be the path for him to run the two countries together. Lukashenko's plans were scuttled, however, when Putin replaced Yeltsin as Russian president. In Putin, Lukashenko found himself with a new Russian leader who had no intention of serving as second fiddle. Putin steadily pursued a more assertive policy toward Russia's neighbours, including invasions of Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014. Pressure on Belarus grew as well, as Putin reduced oil subsidies and other financial support to Belarus. He convinced Lukashenko to join various regional entities — the Collective Security Treaty Organization and Eurasian Economic Union – as part of an effort to establish a Russian sphere of influence. Putin also wants to set up a military base in Belarus, which would take to another level the increasing integration of Belarusian and Russian military and security forces. The recent report of the International Strategic Action Network for Security clearly demonstrates Putin's «creeping assault on the sovereignty of Belarus.» More recently, the Russia-Belarus union, dating back to 1999, is back in fashion, because formalising suc...

The visit of Guterres was discussed at the UN headquarters in New York, Belarus MFA told the media. The Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN Valentin Rybakov and UN Secretary-General António Guterres met on Wednesday, 17 July 2019. The officials discussed preparation of a High-Level International Conference “Combating terrorism through innovative approaches and the use of new and emerging technologies” that is organized by Belarus and the UN. The conference will take place in Minsk on 3-4 September. Rybakov and Guterres also “exchanged views on the most pressing issues in the field of international relations, as well as on the state and prospects of cooperation between Belarus and the UN”. According to Belarus MFA, the UN Secretary-General highly praised the efforts of Belarus in strengthening international and regional security.

4 hours instead of 6.5. Test drives of a new train are underway, local media report. The maximum speed of the train is 140 km/h; it will ride through Luninets, Lyakhovichi, Gantsevichi, and Baranovichi. Railway workers said the route might start working in about two weeks. It will be running on Fridays, weekends and holidays.

The level of patriotism in the U.S. is at a very high level even despite a slight decline in indicators. According to a survey by the Gallup Paul agency, the level of patriotism in the U.S. in 2013 was 85%, down from 92% in 2002.

The reasons are low birth rates and migration in Europe. In this regard, the IMF recommends demographic reforms, including some for Belarus. The experts claim that the reduction of the population entails three negative consequences. First, it will have a negative impact on economic growth, living standards and financial stability. Secondly, as the population ages, the pressure on health care and pension systems will increase. Third, the ageing of the population will affect the economic productivity. For each country, the IMF experts propose their own measures. In particular, it is recommended to raise the retirement age for Belarus. «Pension age reform is likely to be required in most countries of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, but it will be especially expedient in Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine — both in terms of the number of labor force and financial stability,» the report says. In addition, the IMF experts recommend that Belarusian authorities pay attention to the employment of women, as well as of people over 55 years of age. The latter measure, according to experts, could be very effective: «Belarus would get a great benefit if it would increase the employment of older people even without raising the retirement age. Back in 2016, the IMF strongly recommended that Belarusian authorities continue pension reforms in order to close the pension gap after 2022. The experts of the Fund advised to raise the pension plan for both men and women under 65 years old.

In simple terms, they are checking whether the apples that soon might be labelled ‘made in Belarus’ do grow in the country. In April, Rosselkhoznadzor, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision, imposed temporary restrictions on the imports of apples and pears from Belarus claiming that it makes deliveries of sanctioned food of EU origin to Russia. Rosselkhoznadzor stressed the agency did not receive reliable information about the volume of imports and the volume of goods that passed through the procedure of customs clearance in our country. This leads to falsification of the goods’ true country of origin, the Russian side added. Over the past two days, Rosselkhoznadzor experts have made a number of visits to Belarusian gardens. According to the watchdog, they are estimating the production capacity of farms in Brest, Vitsebsk and Hrodna. They came to Belarus at the invitation of Alyaksandr Piskun, Director of the Main State Inspectorate on Seed-growing, Quarantine and Plant Protection. In May, Rosselkhoznadzor said they had no intention to lift the ban. In late June, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree extending ‘specific economic measures against countries that imposed sanctions against Russia until December 31, 2020. Since August 2015, Russia has destroyed about thousands of tons of food from countries that were put under the Russian food embargo. Most of these products made it into Russia through Belarus. Belarusian companies gained notoriety for purchasing food products ‘made in the EU’, ‘editing’ some inscription on their packages and then delivering them to Russia which took retaliation measures against the bloc for its sanctions list and support of Ukraine.