Dictator Lukashenko’s country reminds me of Soviet times. On the M4 highway, connecting Brest and Minsk, not far from the Belarusian capital road workers are washing the road fence. Under a drizzling rain a few people are sweeping the asphalt road. The work of such type is oftentimes seen in the state, run by dictator Lukashenko. There’s little unemployment here, not many industrial products are produced, while the salaries are hardly enough to buy the essential goods and vodka.

---

Only 2% of Russians consider Alexander Lukashenko worth the title “man of the year-2001”. Within the poll’s framework the All-Russian public opinion center surveyed 1,600 respondents.

---

As far as the Central Electoral Committee’s mandate expired, Alexander Lukashenko made new appointments of its members according to the presidential quota. So among the CEC members will be Igor Andreev, Lidya Ermoshina, Nadezhda Kiseleva, Nikolai Lozovik, Valery Mitskevich and Vladimir Tsetsokho. Chair of the Central Electoral Committee for elections and national referenda was again appointed Lidya Ermoshina. The rest six CEC members will be elected by the “national assembly”.

---

Recently rumors have been spreading in Belarus about the possible limitation of cash payment for commodity, worth over $200. “Izvestia” correspondent says that deputy Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov refutes these allegations. “No one in the government raised a question about the restriction of cash payments and not even one project mentions that,” – notes Kobyakov. At the same time the official confirmed the existence of draft program on binding population’s cash incomes, which is part of the “general program on raising demand for money”. By January 1 it has to be approved by the joint ruling of the government and the National Bank.

---

The salary indebtedness in the Brest region amounts to 11,5bln rubles. 6 of them fall on the agricultural sector. Such data have been cited at the session of the Brest region committee on December 26. Less than two weeks ago participants of the regional intercom meeting mentioned different figures – 5,5bln. While at that moment 8 region’s districts had no salary debts, today only the companies of the Berezy district cleared off their salary indebtedness before workers.

---

The session of the Mogilev regional trade union association passed their appeals to Alexander Lukashenko and the Constitutional court of Belarus, pleading with them to cancel the Cabinet of Ministers’ ruling of December 14, 2001 “On measures to protect trade unionists’ rights”. The meeting’s participants unanimously denounced the ruling, considering it to be anti-Constitutional and destroying the current system of trade union dues payment. They call the order a flagrant violation of workers right to spend their salary as they please.

---

80% of construction equipment and machinery in the region of Gomel is outdated and needs urgent replacement. This information was voiced at the press-conference of the first deputy chair of the Gomel regional council Alexander Belayev. However, it is only possible to renew the park, he said, with a 25% profitability level, whereas its actual size hardly reaches 6-7%. So there’ll be a problem with the construction workers’ fulfillment of an order to diminish the cost of one square meter of living space by 10%.

---

Son of the country’s former Premier Mikhail Chigir Alexander, accused of setting up a criminal gang, specializing in hijacking cars, declared even before the trial began that the investigators are fabricating the witnesses’ testimony in order to hold him accountable for stealing many cargo minibuses “Ford Transit”. Yesterday this was confirmed by the participants of the court hearings, held in the Leninsky district court of Minsk. In late 2000 the unknown hijackers stole a white “Ford Transit” from Dmitry and Svetlana Maslovskys. Two months later they recognized the spare parts of their vehicles. However, in court it turned out that the identification was carried out not in the junior Chigir’s house in the Tarasovo village, but rather at some military base in Minsk.

---

Gomel city court ruled on December 27 that chairman of the Gomel youth center “Gart” Sergei Odinets violated presidential decree#8, prohibiting to use in political goals the technical equipment, received through western charity foundations. According to the court’s verdict, the “Gart” chair will need to pay a 1mln ruble fine ($637). The equipment had been seized by the KGB agent during the presidential election campaign this year. Legal action was opened against “Gart” upon the results of the tax inspection, which, in its turn, was based on the outcomes of searches, run by KGB. “Gart” intends to appeal against the town court’s decision in the regional court.

---

The United Civil Party (UCP) of Belarus addressed the chairman of the Committee for state security (KGB) Leonid Erin with a call to file in resignation. The reason for this was the suicide of the Gomel ZUBR activist Andrei Zaitsev, who, in UCP’s opinion, “could no longer endure pressure and blackmail applied against him by the local KGB”. On the place of the incident they found an audiotape with the phone conversation between Zaitsev and a KGB agent, as well as his letter to the Belarusian Helsinki Committee about the circumstances of his recruitment by KGB, reads the party’s statement.

---

Brest law-enforcers apprehended head of one of the largest Belarusian-Polish companies, specializing in furniture manufacture. The man is indicted for illicit transportation abroad of a large currency amount, namely $741,550. This sum was transported by parts in course of this year. At present, the detainee is held in pre-trial confinement. The investigation on the matter is being carried out by the KGB investigative department.

---

26% of Minskers would like Russian leader Vladimir Putin to chair the “union” of Russia and Belarus. Only some 12% of them prefer Lukashenko to Putin. These findings were obtained in an opinion poll, conducted by the sociological service “Zerkalo” of BelaPAN. 8% of respondents either prefer some less known figures or believe that the union presidency is unnecessary. The majority of the surveyed (54%) abstained from telling who should become the union president in their opinion.

---

31% consider this deal to be “clearly negative”, while 20% - “more like negative”. These are the results of the survey, held on December 18-21, 2001 by “Zerkalo” sociologists from BelaPAN news agency. 500 respondents, aged 50 and over, answered the questionnaire. Around one quarter of them – 27% - perceive the possible privatization of domestic industrial giants by Russian tycoons as positive (10% said “positive”, 17% - “more like positive”). Every fifth (22%) couldn’t answer this question.

---

New reduced tariffs will be introduced on January 1, 2002 for the users of the password-free access to Internet. It will be applicable in work days from 2a.m. till 8a.m., costing 11,6 rubles per minute, while the companies will have to pay $0,01 (not counting VAT).

---

Only the national passports of the Republic of Belarus, issued after 1996, will enable their owners to freely leave the boundaries of Belarus since January 1, 2002. BELTA reports from the press-center of the frontier department that Belarusians carrying passports with USSR symbols won’t be let outside the country. Individuals, who left the country with such IDs before January first will be allowed to return without a hindrance.

---