Two weeks ago the National Theatre of Belarus took off its repertoire the popular Belarusian national play by Yanka Kupala “Tuteishiya”. The incident happened hours before the performance, so neither the actors, nor the audience had been notified in good time. When asked whether the cancellation came as a surprise to him, the scenarist Nikolai Pinigin, awarded a state prize for the play in 1993, told Radio Svaboda the following: “Every time when I come to Minsk I ask the actors, engaged in “Tuteishiya” why the play is not on? And usually they would tell me that it is an election period or something. During any other political campaigns they wouldn’t dare show it too. Following the September 2001 political action “Tuteishiya” were expected to be back on stage again, but this was never the case. But it wasn’t anything unexpected to me anyway.”
Berlin became eighth European capital where on December 10 – anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Right – the activists will picket the Belarusian embassy. The youth, which studies in Berlin, and activists of some German public organizations have as their goal to draw the attention of the international community to the problem of political repressions in Belarus.
The idea to introduce the system of cashless payments for the commodity, worth over $200, grew into real draft projects of presidential decrees, BelaPAN was told by the president of the Belarusian entrepreneurial union Alexander Potupa: “God forbid that one of such decrees gets signed by the New Year as kind of a holiday gift. It would have an extremely negative and explosive consequences.”
The meeting of “Atlant” shareholders resulted in the dismissal of the company’s director general Leonid Kalugin. The shareholders elected to this post former chief engineer Viktor Shumilov. As you know, Kalugin was detained by the law-enforcers and placed under lock – he’s charged with the abuse of power, large-scale embezzlement and illicit entrepreneurial activities.
The monitoring council satisfied resignation plea, submitted by the director of the Brest state stockinet factory “Elma” Zinaida Polyak. Her place will be taken over by a 31-year old Alexander Khrimenya, recommended to this post by the board of the “Bellegprom” concern’s leadership. Zinaida Polyak worked as director of the company for 12 years. In total she dedicated 36 years of her life to “Elma”. She filed in resignation out of her own will. This decision, says Polyak, became a result of the so-called “struggle with shadow business”.
The “New Newspaper of Smarhon” emerged beginning from April 1996. The newspaper’s circulation is three times as big as circulation of the district official newspaper. Since July 2001 its founder Ramuald Ulan has been doing his best to get a sanction from the executive committee of Smarhon for placing editorial offices of two more new newspapers. These newspapers are to be published for the two neighboring regions, Ashmyany and Astravets, but their office is to be placed in the acting editorial office in Smarhon. First the local executive committee did not agree to the housing of the editorial offices, and later found it inexpedient. Finally the authorities transferred the load of the responsibility to the neighboring regional executive committees. But the problem with accommodation was not solved, and it made the founder to take legal action.
Last weekend the authorities shut down two Minsk mini-markets – “Kharchovy”, located opposite the “Sosny” restaurant in the Zavodsky district and “Baikalsky” near the Angarskaya str. Previously many Minskers were sadly surprised by the disappearance of many newsagent’s booths in vicinity of the central railroad station, in Skarina prospect and some other places. At the moment one can hardly buy fresh press anywhere. Vendors from the “Baikalsky” marketplace are utterly displeased with the incident – they were practically left without job.
Moldavian president Vladimir Voronin deems that his country can join the union of Russia and Belarus only in the long-term perspective. “It would be nicer if Ukraine determined to join the union ahead of us, for we don’t have any common boundaries with Russia or Belarus. However, considering Kiev’s position, one can speak of the possible accession of Moldova into the union only in a distant perspective,” – said Voronin in an interview to the “Trud” and “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” newspapers.
The Republic of Belarus’ foreign trade amounts in dollar equivalent to $12,7bln and contracted in comparison with January-October 2000 by 2,8%, reports the Foreign Ministry press-service.
There’ll be no deficit of champagne by the Christmas and New Year holidays, BELTA correspondent was told by the director of Belarus’ only champagne and wine factory of Minsk Mikhail Gordei. By the end of the year they will put on sale 2 million 350 thousand bottles.
“The state secretary mentioned the OSCE’s readiness to support democratic transformations and highly assessed the AMG work in Belarus. It was an exciting sign on behalf of the USA and EU. It shows that OSCE will keep insisting on real democratic reforms in Belarus, which never really occurred in there,” – commented ambassador Hans-Georg Wieck on US state secretary’s recent statement.
According to the Radio Svaboda sources in the Foreign Ministry of Germany and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, head of the OSCE mission in Minsk Hans-Georg Wieck may be replaced by the German diplomat Ebergard Gaiken. In an interview to the German Radio correspondent OSCE PA Parliamentary Group’s chair Uta Zapf confirmed that Hans-Georg Wieck would be substituted by Mr.Gaiken – former German ambassador in Ukraine. Recently Gaiken has been in charge of the German-Ukrainian forum – organization of bilateral political cooperation. Gaiken is said to be an expert in the Ukrainian and Belarusian issues.
BPF press-center was informed by the Ukrainian journalists, who investigated into the financial abuses, committed by the Crimean statesmen that Alexander Lukashenko owes to the Ukrainian tax-payers dozens of thousands of dollars. This astronomic for most Ukrainians sum was wasted on Lukashenko’s luxurious rest in the prestigious Yalta sanatorium “Russia”. Crimean speaker Leonid Grach, who’s a committed adherent of Lukashenko’s policy and speaks in favor of the USSR’s reanimation, had numerously invited Lukashenko to spend his summer vacation in the Crimean resorts.
Lukashenko’s former guard – riot police officer Levonenko – acted as a witness at the trial over Ignatovich’s criminal gang. Some claim that Levonenko was implicated in the abduction of an ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky. The jury continues to interrogate key witnesses in Ignatovich’s case. The observers note that recently there sprang up certain disputes between the prosecutors and attorneys as to whom they should listen to as witnesses, reports Radio Svaboda.
The system of cashless payments among the Belarusian population for the commodity, worth $200 and more, won’t be imposed in the near future, said at the Tuesday press-conference the Belarusian Minister of Justice Viktor Golovanov. The official states that at present the government is working out a series of measures, aimed at “binding population’s cash possessions”. He noted that this year alone Belarusian residents acquired more than $300mln.
Bucharest session of OSCE member-states’ Foreign Ministers is currently underway. Expectedly, the Ministers will name a successor of Hans-Georg Wieck as OSCE AMG chair in Belarus, reports the Belarusian service of Radio Svaboda. The major topic of the Bucharest meeting is doubtless the fight against world terrorism. Practically all speakers began with that issue, Belarus FM Mikhail Khvostov being no exception. Moreover, he called to put back in conformity the regional imbalance in the OSCE. What exactly imbalance he meant remains unclear.
Can a person find NAZI or national-chauvinist literature in Belarus? Experience tells us that no such problem exists. According to some sources, this type of literature is being widely spread near the Moskovsky bus terminal – this is the regular place, though unofficial, where the followers of the unregistered pro-fascist movement “Russian National Unity” click together. Here one may also order RNU symbols and swastikas. Certain lovers of music from RNU groups claim that one can freely purchase on tapes the war hymns of the Third Reich: for 5-10 US dollars they will bring you from Moscow any collection of military music from the “Deutche Zoldaten” series.
The court of the Central district of Minsk turned down the complaint of the law consultant of the Free trade union Alexander Korolev over the arbitrary actions of the Mogilev law-enforcers. Korolev demanded that police officers give him back a few hundred T-shirts, confiscated in August, with inscriptions “Say No to a Fool!”
MK-Novosti learned this from an informed source in the presidential administration. The informant stressed that Borodin’s may become one in a long chain of dismissals and appointments. Former charge of Eltsin’s affairs may take the place of “AlRos” president Shtyrov, who was yesterday registered as candidate for the president of Yakutia. At least Borodin’s candidacy for the post will be upheld by his old crony deputy prosecutor general of Russia Kolmogorov. The man himself is one of the key challengers of the president Nikolaev of Yakutia at the upcoming elections.
Lukashenko’s recent coming to the Mogilev region turned out another headache for local officials and statesmen. One of the reasons for the failure to fulfill the plan according to Lukashenko was poor labor discipline. He recommended as a remedy to more fully use his Decree#29. He urged them to sign contracts with all employees and report to him after it is accomplished by January 1 at the latest. Head of the department for social-economic and human resources issues of the Mogilev trade union association Tatyana Isachenko believes that mass contractization will lead to the financial impoverishment of companies, reports www.praca.by.
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