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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 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.

Belarus is negotiating with Russia about the compensation for the oil tax maneuver. Both sides have reached understanding in the issue but Russians are saying that final decisions can be made only after the integration becomes deeper, the diplomat said.«I believe that these things should not be bound. The impending issues need to be solved. They should have been solved long ago – on January 31, 2019,” Syamashka announced. Belarus and Russia are supposed to sign a visa agreement by the end of the year, the diplomat added. Both states have finished domestic procedures needed to approve the documents and are waiting for a good political moment, he said.

Певица Лайма Вайкуле, бойкотирующая Крым, решила поддержать грузинскую певицу Нино Катамадзе после ее резких высказываний о России и отказа выступать там.

The British magazine points out that Svetlana Alexievich who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2015 is the first non-fiction writer to do so. It also underlines the fact that soon after the winning her works have been freshly translated into English. “Alexievich’s interviews with Russian soldiers in Afghanistan, Chernobyl survivors, people who were children in the war with Germany and many others produce moving accounts of suffering in the Soviet world. Her technique of collating highly-edited transcripts with little or no context has been criticised as being more myth-making than accurate history. But there’s no denying the courage and artistry of a writer who counts Vladimir Putin among her opponents,” a brief description of the Belarusian writer reads. Recall that Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature hugely admired Second-Hand Time that was described as “a monument to suffering and courage in our time”. It has been half a century since a writer working primarily in non-fiction won the Nobel – Svetlana Alexievich is the first journalist and writer from Belarus to win the award.

В четверг, 18 июля, на Крымском мосту завершили укладывать рельсы. Об этом пишет "Интерфакс". 

Currently, the statements of the Belarusian side on diversification of oil supplies is an attempt to blackmail Russia. In reality, the Lukashenka team do not take any measures aimed to diversify oil supplies. It is highly unlikely that in response to increasing US military contingent in Poland Lukashenka would agree to deploy Russian military contingent or Russian military bases. Lukashenka will bid for the presidency at the presidential elections that are to take place in 2020, after the parliamentary elections. In the next presidential term, he will be thinking of a successor. Lukashenka speaks of a new Constitution, meaning the forthcoming hand over of the authority to a successor. Despite the growing disagreements in the issues of the integration within the union state, the Kremlin and Lukashenka will not announce the end to the project. On December 13, 2018, the Vice Premier of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev claimed: “Russia is ready to keep moving on the way of building up the union state, including the creation of the single currency emission centre, the unified customs, courts, auditing chamber.” Since then, practically every month the sides have been exchanging statements of strongly different variants of developments in the relations within the union state. The Russian side suggests discussing its initiatives on deepening integration. On December 14, Lukashenka claimed: “If someone wants to pop us into Russia – that will never happen… Under the pretext of the deep integration, Moscow wants to incorporate Belarus into Russia. I understand these hints: get the oil, but go ahead, ruin the state and enter Russia.” Lukashenka claimed that it is through Russia’s fault the union state has not yet been created. The union implies equal rights, equal conditions for economic subjects. And these conditions are getting more and more uneven. According to Lukashenka, currently, the Belarusian enterprises pay 200 USD for a thousand cubic metres of gas, whereas Russian enterprises pay 60 USD. Commenting on the statements from Medvedev regarding the unified emission centre and unified customs, Lukashenka claimed that Russia offered “to create the union from the roof, and not from the basement”. Such basement, in his opinion, is the creation of equal conditions for economy subjects, i.e. supplies of oil and gas at home Russian prices and absence of barriers for Belarusian exports to Russia. The problem is not about the logic or sequence of integration (basement-roof),...

«We planned to get another loan from Russia, but we postponed the issue, since we have found an alternative with our Chinese partners,» Byalkavets said on July 9. Byalkavets's statement came weeks after Finance Minister Maksim Yermalovich said that his country had been seeking to borrow money from a country other than Russia due to mounting differences in bilateral relations.

213,000 tickets sold! Ticket sales reached 213,000, the official said in a recent interview. Of them, 12,700 were purchased by foreigners, according to the official. “Other 7,000 were invited by various public organizations to participate in the Games. This makes 20,000 visitors. Plus, 15,000 ticket packages were sold by travel companies.” The total official number of guests from other countries is 35,000, Kovalchuk said. “Not to mention the guests who came on their own,” the official added. 2nd European Games took place in Minsk on 21-30 June 2019. The Games were named one of the biggest sports events of the summer with 50 participating countries, 15 sports, and over 4,000 athletes. The leader of the medal count was the Russian team with 109 medals. 221 Belarusian athletes won 69 medals, including 24 gold ones.

Support for agriculture is a key task. “We are determined to keep agriculture support at the same level, maybe even expand it a bit,” Aleksandr Turchin said. He added there is still space for concessions in the talks, whereas Belarus is aware of the lines it can’t cross. Belarus is ready for a compromise, but without compromising its own interests, First Vice Prime Minister stressed. Turchin said that Russian and the USA have the most rigid stance in the talks, but it helps Belarus have a new angle on many issues. “We’ve achieved significant progress in a short time,” the official said. According to him, Belarus has a good chance to finish all the formalities by the Twelfth Ministerial Conference in June 2020 in Kazakhstan. The final draft of the agreement should be ready by 2019 year-end or early 2020.

Апелляционный суд Амстердама отложил вынесение решения по «делу о скифском золоте».

For the citizens of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the fee will not change. They will continue to pay 35 euros for the visa — this amount is specified in the agreements of these countries with the EU to simplify the issuance of visas. The corresponding regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June has been published by the Official Journal of the European Union today.

The edition noticed that Minister of Agriculture Ihar Brylo had been photographed at Barysau enterprise “Zdravushka”. The official uploaded his photo in a T-short with the inscription “Russia” to the social media. When the photo was published by numerous mass media, Brylo closed down his account. Nasha Niva phoned the Ministry to learn more details. The spokesperson promised to ask the deputy Minister about the issue. When the reporter called her again, she swore at him. The edition published the whole conversation. Euroradio has selected the most scandalous part: NN: Zinaida Yauhenyeuna, good afternoon. This is Dzmitry Pankavents from Nasha Niva. Have you managed to get a comment from Ihar Vyachaslavavich? Zinaida Berashchenka: Look, this is the wrong thing to politicize. Stop doing this f*cking sh*t. This is not the right place to do it.” NN: Oh… ZB: You should better go to a collective farm and make a good report about the harvesting campaign and about men who come home only to have a cup of tea. Stop politicizing it. What is your ideology? Do you want to change the people’s spirit in some way? NN: What spirit are you taking about? ZB: Why the f*ck do you need his comment? NN: Wait, he is a Belarusian official wearing a T-shirt advertising a foreign country. ZB: Why do you care about his clothes?

Верховный суд Украины разрешил участвовать в выборах в Верховнуюраду бывшему заместителю генерального прокурора страны Ренату Кузьмину. Ранееего сняли с предвыборной гонки за то, что он последние пять лет по документампроживал за границей – в российском Крыму. Об этом сам кандидат написал у себяв Facebook.

Президент Украины Владимир Зеленский намерен провести новые телефонные переговоры с российским лидером Владимиром Путиным.

9 июля 2019 года в Екатеринбурге президент России Владимир Путин прочел лекцию по истории, посвященную изменениям статуса Абхазии и Южной Осетии с того момента, когда Российская империя начала аннексировать территории Кавказа в конце 18 века.

СИМФЕРОПОЛЬ, 16 июл — РИА Новости Крым. Членам запрещенных в России организаций меджлис* и "Хизб ут-Тахрир"* при поддержке США или Евросоюза никогда не удастся расшатать межнациональное согласие в Крыму, которое в настоящее время фундаментальным образом строится на полуострове. Об этом РИА Новости Крым заявил глава региональной национально-культурной автономии крымских татар Республики Эйваз Умеров, комментируя выраженную временно поверенным в делах США на Украине Уильямом Тейлором обеспокоенность последними сообщениями о задержании крымских татар в Крыму. 

В качестве примера он привёл «акт Логана», введённый в США в 1798 году. Документ предусматривает уголовную ответсвенность за ведение переговоров со странами, которые являются врагами Вашингтона.

Президент Украины хочет сесть за руль «КамАЗа»

Депутат Верховной рады Евгений Мураев считает, что блокада Донбасса и Крыма привела Украину к плачевным последствиям.

Глава комитета крымского парламента по межнациональным отношениям Юрий Гемпель заявил, что президент Украины Владимир Зеленский начал брать пример с российского лидера Владимира Путина.

Украинский лидер Владимир Зеленский посетил контрольный пункт «Чонгар», находящийся на границе Незалежной с российским Крымом. Эта поездка к КПВВ стала первой для главы государства с тех пор, как полуостров вошел в состав РФ.

Украинский лидер Владимир Зеленский во время своего визита в Одессу окунулся в Черном море вместе с местными жителями и сотрудниками администрации.

The remains of two dozen participants of the January Uprising (1863-1864) were found in Vilnius earlier, Euroradio reported. The remains of Kastus Kalinouski, national hero of Belarus, could also be among them. Those people were executed by the Russian authorities. Lithuanian experts are 95% sure that the remains of Kaslus Kalinouski have been found. Vilnius has asked Minsk to exhume Kastus’ brother Viktar in order to prove it. A solemn reburial of the insurgents will be organized in Vilnius in autumn. Most of the executed people originated from Belarus.

Президент Украины Владимир Зеленский начал «делать правильные шаги», решив лично проверить готовность моста через Днепр, как это ранее делал его российский коллега Владимир Путин, открыв автомобильное движение по Крымскому мосту. Таким мнением поделился глава комитета крымского парламента по межнациональным отношениям Юрий Гемпель, передает РИА Новости.

«My concern about such secrecy in the work on integration of the two states is caused by the threat of loss of real independence and sovereignty of Belarus… as well as an unexpected forced integration process,» Kanapatskaya wrote on her Facebook page. She stressed that the Belarusian society is also concerned about this problem. «The lack of information on this subject, its secrecy, only fuels concern and social tension within Belarus,» said the deputy. Despite the fact that the head of state and officials reassure people, saying that there is no threat to independence, Belarusians see ultimatums, pressure and blackmail from the Russian leadership. Deputy Hanna Kanapatskaya demands that «full information about the ongoing processes of integration of Russia and Belarus» as well as about the work of the Belarusian working group and the joint group with the Russians on integration be provided to her. Kanapatskaya also demands that the media produce regular reports on the «integration» negotiations. «The issue of independence and sovereignty of Belarus is one of the few and the most important ones that unites the authorities, the opposition and the Belarusian people,» writes MP Kanapatskaya. «Thus, only openness in this matter will allow to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the country, as well as to consolidate the Belarusian society,» says the MP. On July 9, Alyaksandr Lukashenka spoke about the work of the joint group on integration. He saw in the actions of Russians «one promises» and «slowing down of the processes».

Крымчане положительно оценили желание Зеленского, отметив, что такое решение вызывает уважение.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka commented on the work of the joint Belarus-Russia group on integration during his meeting with the Union State Secretary Ryhor Rapot. The group was supposed to analyze all the problems in the relations of the two states. “There are only promises,” Lukashenka’s press service quotes him. “When the work group encountered an issue, the Russian government including PM Medvedev started promising to give all the corresponding orders to comprehensively solve the problems. This is their negotiation tactics: to keep promising and forgetting. It means that these processes are being deliberately hindered.” As a result, he has nothing to discuss with Vladimir Putin, the President said. Meanwhile, they have two meetings scheduled for the near future. Alyaksandr Lukashenka has asked Ryhor Rapota “to strictly put the question to Russia since we need to get certain results in just a few days.”

Seven people — including a toddler and one eight-year-old boy — were killed while 140 others were injured after gale-force winds, rain and freak hail storms struck the Halkidiki peninsula in northern Greece.

Fifteen players were fined a total of $106,400 (£84,950) throughout the first six days of this year’s competition, already overtaking last year’s total of $68,000 (£54,300) enforced over the full two weeks. The heaviest fine this year was given to Bernard Tomic, who was penalised a record $58,500 (£45,000) for lack of effort in his first round clash against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Tuesday. Belarusian player Aryna Sabalenka was fined $10,000 (£7,990) for “unsportsmanlike conduct,” whilst $5,500 (£4,400) was levied against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev for the same offence after he attacked the grass court with his racquet and refused to shake the umpire’s hand at the end of the game. There are a total of 24 offences that Wimbledon bosses can hold players to account for — including punctuality, dress code, swearing and abuse of racquets and balls. In 2016, $93,500 (£70,700) worth of fines were handed out during the whole tournament, up from $62,500 (£40,000) in 2015. Saturday’s play saw Italy’s Fabio Fognini say he wished “a bomb would explode” on the AELTC after he was scheduled to play on a smaller court. Wimbledon CEO Richard Lewis said that there is likely to be a small fine for the “unfortunate” comment, adding: «It was one of those heat of the moment comments which is a very unfortunate and he was good enough to apologise straight away.” The Wimbledon boss also suggested that the “bay boy of tennis” Nick Kyrgios could be fined for how he spoke to the umpire during his match on Thursday. »Whether there's anything to do with some of the conversational discussion Nick had with the umpire, I think that maybe is worthy of scrutiny," he said.

According to the official report, Lukashenka has already read the statement of Zelensky. Recently, the Ukrainian leader offered to organize an international meeting with the participation of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, USA, Great Britain, Germany and France in Belarus. The press service notes that «there is nothing new in the policy of the president of Belarus and in his attitude to the conflict in Ukraine,» so Lukashenka supports the idea of such a summit. «As for the voiced proposals on the participants of the meeting, everyone must remember that the president of our country has repeatedly said that „this problem should be solved by us — the three Slavic peoples. Not Europeans, not Americans, but us, so that it would not be frozen as other hotspots in the post-Soviet space,“ the statement said. »But if the problem cannot be solved in such a format, and one of the parties to the conflict — in this case Ukraine — insists and offers the participation of other players, we also support this format… Moreover, Alyaksandr Lukashenka has long been talking about the U.S. involvement in the resolution of this conflict — it will be difficult to solve this problem without the Americans," the statement said.

«We are in the talks at the moment on deepening the integration processes. After we have finished dialogue on this topic, it will become clear when and how we will be unifying our gas market, making it a single market or a common market of natural gas,» Kozak is quoted as saying by the Russian news agency TASS. The Russian official hopes the solution will be found in the near future. On 28 June, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said that the talks with Belarus on the extension of the gas supplies contract after 2019 were yet to begin. However, the company has reportedly received 'first proposals' from Belarus and is currently considering them. The protocol prices of natural gas that Russia and Belarus agreed upon in 2017 expires this year. Minsk insists that the price of natural gas in Russia's Smolensk region would be fair for Belarusian consumers. As of today, Belarus buys natural gas from Russia at $127 per 1000 cubic meters. In Russia's Smolensk Region, which borders Belarus, natural gas costs $70.

Великолепная природа Крыма не всегда может исправитьнегативное впечатление, которые получают гости полуострова, сталкиваясь с различными трудностями в отпуске. Министерствокурортов и туризма республики организовало специальную горячую линию, кудаотдыхающие могут обращаться с вопросами и претензиями.

«By the end of 2018 [Belarus and Russia] had to work out a common formula in order to reach comparable gas prices for Belarus and for consumers of Smolensk region of Russia in the future. And on July 1 this year, we we supposed to sign the corresponding intergovernmental agreement. It would have been a decisive and beneficial step on the way to the convergence of economic conditions for the enterprises of Belarus and Russia. It would allow to start solving other more complicated tasks of the Belarusian-Russian and Eurasian economic integration. We sent our proposals to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, Gazprom and the Russian government. We proposed different methods but have not yet received any official conclusions. A similar situation is happening with the tax maneuver. We believe that this is a violation of the Eurasian Union Treaty,» the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus quotes the diplomat. According to the diplomat, it makes no sense to solve the problems of a single customs and tax legislation, single currency and emission center until the issues of common prices for energy supplies are resolved within the Union State of Belarus and Russia. «MAZ has to pay $278 per thousand cubic meters of gas, while KAMAZ — $65. MAZ pays 11 cents for electricity, while KAMAZ — no more than 4 cents. „Until we equalize the economic conditions, it's premature to say that we'll immediately solve the problem of a single customs and tax legislation, single currency, single emission center,“ said Ambassador of Belarus to Russia.

The figurine, unearthed by archaeologists in the ruins of an ancient city on the outskirts of Minsk, the Belarus capital, is a chess piece, probably a knight. It’s proof, in the poet’s view, that his country has existed for a millennium as a culture and polity separate from Russia. “This means that 1,000 years ago people on this spot were sitting playing chess,” said Gleb Labadzenka, the poet. “Our neighbors’ capitals — Moscow, Warsaw, Vilnius — did not even exist at this time, but here we were playing chess.” In Belarus, Ukraine and other parts of the defunct Soviet Union, an endless tug-of-war between Moscow and its former dominions has often been defined by quarrels over oil and gas pipelines, military alignments, and geopolitics. At bedrock, however, are sharp differences over history, culture and language. And it is on this front, Mr. Labadzenka and like-minded Belarusians believe, that their country can best resist pressure from President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to accelerate moves toward a so-called “union state.”

В Киеве необходимо сконцентрировать всю меджлисовскую «элиту» и организовать подготовку кадров для захвата власти в российском Крыму.

For over 800 years now, the beautiful Riga has been living on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Being at the crossroads of trade routes, the city absorbed the culture and traditions of many nations and today, Riga, perhaps, is the international capital in the European Union.

Кандидат в депутаты и лидер партии "Голос" Святослав Вакарчук пояснил, почему в студии канала "Украина" 28 июня не смог ответить на вопрос Юлии Тимошенко о цене на газ. Об этом речь идет в интервью Вакарчука "Настоящему времени". 

В начале этого месяца истек пятилетний запрет прокуратуры Республики Крым на посещение полуострова главе «Меджлиса»* Рефату Чубарову. В Крыму это «событие» прошло незаметно, поскольку за пять лет крымчане привыкли жить спокойно без неадекватного бородатого деятеля, так что мало кто вспомнил о покинувшем Крым Чубарове.

5 июля 2019 года истек пятилетний запрет, выданный прокуратурой Республики Крым, на посещение российского полуострова Рефату Чубарову, главе незаконного «Меджлиса крымско-татарского народа».

СИМФЕРОПОЛЬ, 8 июл – РИА Новости Крым. Рабочие обнаружили в Ханском дворце подземные ходы от гарема и главного корпуса. Об этом сообщил депутат Госдумы РФ Руслан Бальбек.

Крымский блогер Александр Горный заявил о готовности сразиться с оскорбившим президента России Владимира Путина грузинским журналистом Георгием Габунией. Об этом он сообщил в блоге радиостанции «Эхо Москвы».

Президент Латвии Раймондс Вейонис наградил певицу Лайму Вайкуле почетной грамотой за выдающийся вклад в латвийскую и мировую музыку, а также за профессионализм. Напомним, что Вайкуле высказывала резкие заявления в сторону России по поводу Крыма. "Диплом за бойкот Крыма?", - вопрошают пользователи.

В этом году принимающей стороной встречи выступает российская Псковская область. Там пройдут основные памятные мероприятия и будет зажжён традиционный Костёр дружбы.