Alexander Lukashenko is gradually tightening pressure on opposition. Three months after the presidential elections in Belarus, the results of which could well have been disputed, opposition comes under fire again. OSCE official in Minsk Hans-Georg Wieck confirms that there are repressions: “Lukashenko launched a massive cleansing, directed against the nomenclature officials, who turned out on opposition’s side during the elections,” – reports Inopressa.ru with a reference to the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau.

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Testimonies of the “secret” witnesses prove that Ignatovich and his accomplices are guilty of mass murders of Belarusian nationals. As you remember, the Minsk regional court continues hearings over the former Almaz fighter Valery Ignatovich, who, among other things, is charged with abducting in July last year an ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky. This episode was by the way considered by court but it remains still unclear what happened to Zavadsky and where the man is right now. However, there’s plenty of proof as concerns Ignatovich’s other bloody crimes and his links with the Belarusian special services.

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A state of Belarusian economy is called “extremely pessimistic” by foreign experts. An expert of the World Bank Vlada Krejacic has worked in our country recently, Radio Racyja informs. He studied the situation at 625 private enterprises in different regions of the country and used official statistic information for the last several years. As said by him, on one hand, Belarusian businessmen experience difficulties because they cannot compete with Russian manufacturers, and on the other hand, the conditions they work in is worse than in other CIS countries.

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During his stay in Moscow Alyaxandar Lukashenka declared, “the time has come to dot our i’s”. He explained that he meant the necessity of “either putting into practice the agreement and program of the Union state formation, or amending these documents greatly, as publicly and openly as possible”. According to Lukashenka, the line of advancing Russia is his priority and inevitability for him, and leaving this track Belarusian leader called his “political death”.

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“The prohibition of non-cash transfer of trade union dues is a violation of the International Labour Organization Convention #87, that establishes an universal right of a worker for free associations”, -- was written in the letter to Alyaxandar Lukashenka by Ron Oswald, Secretary General of the International Union of Food and Tobacco Industry Workers, Restaurant and Hotel Service, Public Catering and linked branches.

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Orsha town hall ruled to invalidate the entrepreneurial license of the editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper “Kutseina” Viktor Andreev. The man himself states that he only learnt about the deprivation of license by sheer accident. On December 5 the meeting of the Orsha town hall passed the concomitant decision on the matter. However, Viktor Andreev received an official notification of the fact not until Christmas eve, when he personally made an inquiry to the town authorities.

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Payments in real money for the energy supplies are falling in number, reports the Belarusian state energy concern. According to the “Belenergo” specialists, over the eleven months of this year the consumers paid only for 35,4% of utilized energy (total sum – 85,7%), while the 2000 money payment constituted 44,7%. Practically all Ministries and concerns exceed the limits on barter payments for the consumed heat and energy, established by the government last summer.

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The indebtedness of the hospitals of Homel region for drugs is equal to 1.5 billion BLR. Despite this, pharmaceutical firms agreed to supply medications on credit. As BelaPAN was informed by the Homel executive committee’s health direction, hospitals addressed trade enterprises as well with a request to deliver foodstuffs on credit, but it has not been agreed yet. The rations in the hospitals deteriorated as the budget money for that has almost ended.

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Before the New Year and Christmas Holidays brewers from Lida have made a present for customers. Owing to reduced trade additional charges from 30% to 20% in their firm shops, the prices were reduced. And other stores that sell production of the local brewery, did the same.

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