Activities on the return of credits, issued by the Belarusian banks, is one of the priority directions in the performance of the country’s law-enforcement bodies, said deputy Minister for interior affairs of Belarus Gennady Glukhovsky at the national conference on the bank system development, which is taking place these days in Minsk under the supervision of Alexander Lukashenko.

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Journalist of the “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” Irina Makovetskaya was summoned on September 7 to the Belarusian procuracy in order to give clarifications about her publication “Common matter” under the rubric “Lawlessness” in the December 5, 2001 #86 issue. However, during the conversation with the prosecutor Stanislav Novikov the journalist’s representative, director of the Center for legal assistance Mikhail Pastukhov noticed on the table the text of the official reprimand, already signed by the deputy prosecutor general Mikhail Snegir on February 6. Therefore, the reprimand had been issued even before the journalist ever provided her clarifications. As a protest against such arbitrary act Irina Makovetskaya refused to sign the official reprimand. The journalist and her representative Mikhail Pastukhov intend to appeal against the decision in the state procuracy and court.

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Brest City executive committee prohibited the editorial board of the informational and analytical weekly the “Brest Currier” to place promotional materials I public transport – on the grounds of ‘inexpediency’.

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Activists of ZUBR resistance movement have carried out an ecological action in Brest. They handed out leaflets to Brest residents, warning them about a risk of radioactive contamination from the burial ground of radioactive waste, which is being constructed by the city. “Brest is at risk to become second Chernobyl”, -- with such a warning the activists came out in the streets.

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This week the deputy chair of the professional committee “Belaruskaliy” Stepan Ivashkevich sought to pass over to president Alexander Lukashenko and the Belarusian Premier an address of a 17 thousand strong miners’ personnel, having preliminarily registered it in the concomitant institutions. Such a necessary decision on the formal registration was caused by the fact that the workers received no reply to all their previous appeals to the high-ranking officials, although the terms, envisaged by the law for that purpose, have already expired.

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Growth of the Gross Domestic Product of Belarus in 2001 – 4,1% – turned out to be the lowest among all CIS states. According to the CIS Committee for statistics, the greatest rise last year was demonstrated by the economy of Kazakhstan, where the GDP rose by 13,2%. It is further followed by Tajikistan (10,2%), Azerbaijan (9,9%), Armenia (9,6%), Ukraine (9%), Moldova (6,1%), Kyrgizia (5,3%), Georgia (4,5%), Uzbekistan (4,5% in 9 months). In Russia the growth of the five basic economy sectors (industry, agriculture, construction, transport and trade) amounted last year to 5,7%. No data on Turkmenistan is available.

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Inflation in the CIS countries in 2001 constituted: in Azerbaijan – 1,3%, Armenia – 2,9%, Belarus – 46,1%, Georgia – 3,4%, Kazakhstan – 6,4%, Kyrgizia – 3,7%, Moldova – 6,3%, Russia – 18,6%, Tajikistan – 12,5%, Ukraine – 6,1%. No data on Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan is provided. These are the findings of the CIS Committee for statistics.

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A few investors left the free economic zone “Vitebsk”. The reason for such step was the imperfection of the tax legislation, lack of regulation of the land issue and red-tape of the state bodies, - deems deputy head of the “Vitebsk” FEZ Alexander Petrov. Now there remain only 15 residents in the free economic zone.

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Issues related to the unsanctioned bugging of the citizens’ phones are, figuratively speaking, distorted into something almost unrecognizable. However, under the conditions of totalitarian states it never loses its poignancy. Belarus can serve as a confirmation to that. From time to time there appear on the pages of non-state media information about the infiltration of “unidentified” persons and organizations into the private lives of individuals and political structures, which dare disagree with Alexander Lukashenko’s views.

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As reported by the American newspaper The Miami Herald at the international conference in Munich the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was posed a question about Belarus’ arms sales to the rogue states. The newspaper writes that “the last session also underscored wide discrepancies between the United States and Russia. Senator Lindsay Gram asked Ivanov why Russia upholds the former Soviet Republic Belarus with cheap energy subsidies. He added that there were no democratic elections in Belarus and the country is the large arms supplier.”

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Press secretary of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus Alyaxei Taranau informed that the investigation of the case of the former director of the Minsk Tractor-Building Plant (MTZ) Mikhail Lyavonau continues, and his release is out of question. According to Taranau, the investigation is to continue for no less than a month. Yu must remember that Mikhail Lyavonau was arrested a month ago on charges related to negligence, bribery and abuse of office, which allegedly caused great losses of the enterprise.

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District court of Belostok ruled that businessman Andrei Zhukovets’ extradition to Belarus, after the man’s three year residence in Poland, can well be a possibility. To the amazement of all those present, when explaining his decision judge Yan Fedoruk said that the defendant could be extradited “as far as the political situation in Belarus is getting normalized”.

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The editorial board of the “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” was notified by an official letter from the Belarusian state company BT that their orders for the allocation of TV commercials wouldn’t be executed. The news came after the order had already been accepted and paid for. Therefore, there’s every grounds to believe that the order’s fulfillment has been halted at the very last instant by the demand from above.

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The subsistence wage size per capita was established by the Cabinet of Ministers’ ruling #119. BELTA correspondent quotes head of the social standards and norms department of the Ministry of labor and social protection Tamara Rak as saying that the minimal wage budget, taking into consideration the price-growth on basic foodstuffs, industrial goods, transport and utilities, has risen in average by 19% as compared with the previous one, constituting 62,568 rubles.

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There occurred an accident at the Borisov power station. On February 7 at around 4p.m. local time most of the town’s energy consumers in central town were cut off electricity. IA “Rosbalt” correspondent was told in the Ministry for emergency situations, that the breakdown was caused by a short circuit at the western sub-station. According to the Ministry, among those cut off from electricity are the instrumental and tin factory, town maternity home, palace of culture, palace of child, secondary school, medical college, as well as multi-story blocks of flats and the “Borisov-vodokanal” company. Moreover, owing to the halt in electricity supplies the “Vodokanal” stopped its electricity pumps and ceased supplying the water. The majority of consumers’ electricity supply has been restored within one-hour time, while the water flow resumed by 7p.m. local time.

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