Indian delegation in Minsk

Belarus - India

Only signing an Agreement on free trade between India and the Customs Union will open the way to the Indian market for Belarusian products


Despite the high level of political relations between Belarus and India, trade between our countries is weak. According to the Foreign Ministry of Belarus, the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries in 2012 amounted to 494.6 million USD. The Indian market imported  over 90 items of Belarusian goods worth 262.2 million USD

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Minsk needs money to support its paternalistic policy

Belarus economy

In 2012, the Belarusian economic model has reached peak of its current capability. Now the only way to keep the economic growth without structural reforms and avoid collapse in  the end of the year, such as currency crises as in 2009 or 2011, is attracting new borrowings  from abroad. This has already been said openly by senior Belarusian officials. But lately, in Minsk did not succeed in the relationship with the creditors, not only in the West but also in the structures of the EuroAsian Economic Community  (EAEC). What is the essence of the dispute and whether the parties will be able to agree?

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Battle for Ukraine

European integration

Chances of integration of Belarus into the European Union depends not only on restoring democracy but, rather, on desire of the EU member states to accept new candidates from the East. And now the main test for them is Ukraine. If the EU accepts Ukraine, Belarus’ perspectives to join this club will look more realistic. 

Being heavily involved in Russian media sphere few Belarusians paid attention to Ukraine-EU summit which took place on 25th of February in Brussels, Belgium.  To summarize the results it is important to say that both sides supports the idea of Ukraine in the EU and played down the Timoshenko case which was a real issue just a couple of month before. The next step will be a free-trade agreement to be signed in Vilnuis this autumn.

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Nobody is trusted

Belarus politics

Anxious mood prevailing in the world outlook for 2013 and only in Belarus, there was little doubt in maintaining status quo.

While the Western media is trying to imagine what we are up to in  2013, only lazy did not mentioned similarity to 1913 - the last year of peace before the First World

But in fact, no other details are the same, except for the general anxiety: then, hardly anyone could have predicted the coming decade, through the Great Depression in the United States, and the world war and revolution were not yet known to historians. But now all the fears of the past easy to insert into the current agenda and to predict at least the next wave of the economic crisis.

Only on our marshes all is stable. Joked as recently as the end of the world in Belarus will not start, it will end in Belarus.

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Belarus review: November 2012

In November, Belarusian authorities have continued to discuss the topic of modernization. However, at the moment there are no specific proposals in what it may be made. Moreover, the plans that have already been announced, mainly belong to the category of just small changes. Generally, the longer the authorities discuss the subject, the more clearly it seems that talk of modernization is an attempt to repair relations with the West without fundamental changes in internal policy. Actually it is the repetition of the liberalization of 2008-2010.

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Belarus to ask new credit from IMF

Negotiations with IMF

On October 29, the last day of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission in Belarus Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich met with David Hoffman, the head of the IMF delegation. As noted by Hoffman, because of "a long meeting," he almost missed the briefing for journalists. Based on the appeared soon after the press release of the Belarusian government, it is clear that official Minsk is trying to aggressively persuade the IMF to give a new loan. The Fund though remains adamant in its demands.

Mikhail Myasnikovich said that Belarus had successfully implemented recommendations of the IMF to stabilize the economy and can therefore count on a new program with the Fund. "We believe that Belarus considering the hard work done by us can count on a program with the IMF – Myasnikovich said - I think it should be reported to the executive directors and to the political leadership of the fund."

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Wheels for wings

Air force of Belarus

Belarusian-Russian relations still depends on military strategic and geopolitical interests of Moscow in exchange for economic benefits and preferences for the Belarusian regime.

As President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko clearly stated on October 16 at a press conference for Russian regional media, Belarus intends to use Russia's support to accelerate technical modernization of the army.

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Belarus – EU border: let them go?

The largest amount of smuggled cigarettes from Belarus was detained by Lithuanian customs officers. The total amount seized is over two million dollars, Internet portal DELFI.lt. reported

In the night from 14 to 15 October at the checkpoint Raigardas Lithuanian customs officers detained two trailers with cigarettes, which houses about 1,600 cartons of smuggled cigarettes. As it turned out, there were three trucks, one of which managed to enter Poland. This information is communicated promptly by Lithuanians to Polish colleagues who then detained cargo 150 kilometers away from the Lithuanian border. In the truck were another 600 boxes of cigarettes.

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