Belarus

Belarus
Location	Europe
Leader	Belarus/President
Type	nation state
Interest of	Vitaly Shishov, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya
Member of	UN
Subpage	•Belarus/Ambassador •Belarus/President

Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Major economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. Until the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including Kievan Rus, the Principality of Polotsk (11th to 14th centuries), the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (ca. 1236–1795), the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795), and the Russian Empire (1721–1917).

Covid-19 Policies

Full article: Covid-19

The Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attracted criticism in late March 2020 for refusing to mandate social distancing in the nation state. IMF and World Bank were interested in him changing the response to Covid-19 to more harsher measures.

Colour revolution 2020

Full article: Colour revolution

After a widely questioned election that allowed Alexander Lukashenko to serve a sixth term, protest erupted in the country. Some were the biggest clashes in the country’s history. The opposition candidate that received considerable publicity and refuge in the EU member state Lithuania, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has had the following statement on her website:

I repeat, I came into politics not for the sake of power, but for the sake of restoring justice. My main goal: to conduct real, fair elections with the participation of all alternative candidates. By voting for me, you are voting for the restoration of your right to choose power, for new and fair elections. Only in this way will the country be able to develop further. We have teamed up with the teams of Victor Babariko and Valery Tsepkalo, the best experts, parties and public organizations cooperate with us. They offer programs for the development of the country, which can be found at reformby.com. We have created a strong team for the common goal of building a new Belarus. Let's do it together! To win, you and I must act as one big team.

The "programs for the development of the country" by Victor Babariko and Valery Tsepkalo focus under "National security sector reform" at reformby.com on:

• strengthening national identity, increasing patriotism and national dignity;
• unification of society on the basis of democratic values and the idea of building an independent Belarus;
• reduction of the Kremlin's influence on Belarus through informational, economic, integration and humanitarian factors;
• withdrawal from post-Soviet integration associations dominated by Russia;
• integration into Western political, economic and military structures (EU, NATO).

The NATO integration is part of a long term goal "by 2030":

• fulfillment by Belarus of all criteria of membership in the EU and NATO, submission of the corresponding applications for membership in these structures

The document uses terminology that is translated into: "Civil society", which in English is a customary term for American think tanks and foundations; this indicates a US sponsored regime change operation.

In August/September 2020 transatlantic think tanks like the Atlantic Council and CEPA started to hire a number of journalists and (PHD) researchers from the region.

Asked for or not, in August 2020, the EU said it will spend €53 million on Belarus, officially camouflaged as "coronavirus emergency support".

In 2021, Belarus was disqualified from the Eurovision Song Contest. Later, the state television and radio broadcasting service of Belarus, Belteleradio was suspended from the European Broadcasting Union.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer	“It is not likely. But he is unpredictable and consumed by resentment and rancour. So, you should not exclude the possibility that he'll be creating a problem between Kaliningrad and Belarus. That area is the gateway from Western Europe to the Baltic countries. If he closes that passage, it would be a reason for war for NATO.”	Jaap de Hoop Scheffer NOS	24 February 2022

 

Group

Group	Start	Description
Belteleradio	1956	The state television and radio broadcasting service of Belarus.

 

Citizens of Belarus on Wikispooks

Title	Born	Died	Description
Svetlana Alexievich	31 May 1948
Alexander Lukashenko	30 August 1954		Declined "$940 million in so-called rapid financing" from the World Bank because it was conditional on his agreeing to impose lockdowns etc. Later survived a regime change operation
Vitaly Shishov	1995	3 August 2021	The former head of the Belarusian House in Ukraine which helps people escape repression in Belarus. He was found hung. Suspected to be an assassination made look like a suicide.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya	11 September 1982
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya	19 November 1996		Athlete who refused to go home to Belarus from the 2020 Olympics.
Anastasia Vashukevich	1982

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	Location(s)	Description
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine	24 February 2022	Ukraine Europe Kiev Russia Donbas Moscow Black Sea	In a new episode of Cold War 2.0 Russia forcefully halted NATO expansion by invading Ukraine, with financial support of China. Although the EU and US denounced the "war crimes" as multiple cities were bombed, several countries opted less severe sanctions to keep importing diamonds and luxury goods and gas (and their loaned money) from Russia, seemingly creating a new iron curtain in Eastern Europe.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Alyaksander Lukashenko on Polish Border Forces and Emil Czeczko	Statement	22 December 2021	Alexander Lukaschenko
Document:Belarus Under Siege	webpage	29 July 2011	Michele Brand
Document:Russia is deploying nuclear weapons in Belarus. NATO shouldn’t take the bait	Article	24 April 2023	Nikolai Sokov	Moscow regards the United States and Europe as parties to the war; Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared that Russia and the United States are in a “hot phase” of war. These statements elevate the Russian war against Ukraine to the category of a “regional conflict” according to the 2000 and subsequent Russian Military Doctrines – a category that allows for limited use of nuclear weapons.
File:NATIONAL SECURITY SECTOR REFORM-reformby-com.pdf	paper		Victor Babariko Valery Tsepkalo	Translated security program from reformby.com for Belarus by the opposition in 2020.

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