Judge of the Leninsky district court of Grodno Dmitry Demchenko ruled a 10 days arrest against the leader of the Grodno BPF branch Sergei Malchik. The jury considered him guilty of unsanctioned rallying and picketing, which took place in Grodno on March 24 on the occasion of the Freedom Day – 84th anniversary since the proclamation of the Belarusian National Republic. Sergei Malchik went on a hunger-strike in protest, reports BelaPAN.

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In Grodno there took place an unsanctioned picket in support of the “Pagonya” journalists, awaiting trial for alleged “defaming the president’s honor and dignity”. Six young people stood in front of the regional executive council with a huge banner “Together with “Pagonya” and smaller ones “Freedom of speech” and “Mozheiko and Markevich – who’s next?”. Radio Svaboda reports that all the picketers got apprehended by police.

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Last week the “Belgospischeprom” concern forwarded a letter to the heads of the regions on holding negotiations with the Russian bear-producing company “Ochakovo”. The letter stipulates the conditions, on which the Belarusian side consents to launch joint investment projects with the Russians. According to the director of one of the plants, having learnt about the conditions, set forth by the Belarusians, the “Ochakovo” leaders were astonished, to say the least.

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The authorities oblige the commercial structures to transfer money for the needs of the agriculture. The “Izvestia” correspondent reports that the concomitant statement had been disseminated by the press-service of the Liberal democratic party. “From all Belarusian regions we are receiving data and documents about the money, forcefully levied by the local authorities on commercial structures of all forms of ownership. They motivate their demands by the alleged preparation for the spring sowing works,” – reads the paper.

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“Himvolokno” state-run enterprise’s employees demand to be given work by the administration. The workers protest against the long pauses, during which they stay without work.

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The index of consumer prices in the CIS states in January-February 2002 rose as compared with January-February 2001 in Azerbaijan by 1,6%, Armenia – 0,6%, Belarus – 47,8%, Georgia 5%, Kazakhstan – 5,8%, Kyrgizia – 3%, Moldova – 10%, Russia – 17,7%, Tajikistan – 7,5%, Ukraine – 4,5%. No data on Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan is available, reports the CIS Committee for statistics.

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In January 2002 the trade turnover between Russia and Belarus constituted $620,1mln and fell, as compared with January 2001, by 2,4%, reports the State Committee for Statistics. Meantime, the export constituted $360,9mln (reduced by 2,5%), import – $259,2mln (fell by 2,2%), while the trade turnover balance reached $101,7mln.

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250 миллионов рублей в помощь АПК Минской области намерены перечислить 250mln rubles will be transferred for the sowing campaign in Minsk region by the companies of the consumer union of the Minsk region. BelaPAN was told by the chair of the board of the Minsk consumer union Ekaterina Protasevich that in April there will take place subbotniks at all companies. Means, earned in this manner, will be transferred to the region’s agricultural complex in order to carry out spring sowing works. “This will be our input into the sowing,” – stressed Protasevich.

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Suburban trains’ fares grew by 50%. From now on a ride in one zone will cost 120 rather than 80 rubles. For instance, the train ticket from Minsk to Baranovichi rose in price from 1200 to 1800 rubles. Meantime, the government of Belarus still hopes that this year the inflation will hold on the level of 20-27%.

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From April 1 the number of flights from Belarus to Western Europe has considerably dropped. From this day the countries of the European union do not agree to accept the planes with a noise level that exceeds the norms. The new standards of the International Organization of Civil Aviation for noise of plane jets at the international flights were adopted. As the personnel of the national airport “Minsk” informed the press center of the Charter’97, from April 1 the number of flights to Stockholm, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and the USA is reduced. For instance, the planes of Belavia will fly to Paris and Stockholm until April 22. Nobody knows what will come next. The direct flights to Vienna and Berlin were cancelled. The number of transit flights to the USA through European airports is lessened.

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The Ministry of information considers the article “Great Launry” in the issue from March 20 of the “Narodnaya Volya” as “spreading of baseless and speculative allegations regarding the president of Belarus”. Here is an extract from the article: “As far as Belarusian authorities are involved in arms trade, and the presidential administration had privatized the most profitable part of the Belarusian economy, it is not hard to understand what sums of money Lukashenka wanted to launder in Austria”.

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Natives of Belarus, having their permanent residence abroad, addressed the world public with a statement of protest over the conclusion of the so-called “Union Treaty between Russia and Belarus”: “We, “The Union of Belarusians Living Abroad” appeal to you with this missive in hope that our voice will be heard. Our opinion on the matter is clear: nothing so shameful had happened in the history of the small but proud country since the proclamation of the BSSR,” – state the Belarusian political immigrants.

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A parliamentary election in Ukraine has been recognized. At 6 a.m., according to the results of the parallel count of the votes, that has been carried out by the electoral bloc of Viktor Yuschenko “Nasha Ukraina” (“Our Ukraine”), 803 thousand electors, or 27.06% of the whole number of electorate, voted for “Nasha Ukraina”. The bloc of the authorities, “For united Ukraine”, had 224 thousand supporters, or 7.55%. These figures, as UNIAN informs, were announced by the coordinator of the bloc “Nasha Ukraina” Roman Bessmertny at today’s press conference. Bessmertny said that the system of the parallel vote count has demonstrated the real results of the election. As said by him, by 6 a.m. 2 million 224 thousand ballot papers have been checked, or about 13.38% of the whole quantity.

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The executive committee of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus ruled to abrogate the agreement with the director general of the sport complex “Olympiysky” Sergei Demkov. 8 out of 10 committee members voted in favor of such decision. The reason for the abrogation of contract were the results of the examination into the “Olympiysky’s” financial activities, which was carried out by the NOC commission in early March. The commission was set up after the promulgation of facts of violations at the complex’s facilities, as well as the demise of a young swimmer in the pool, who was sucked in by the water-collecting pipe, reports BelaPAN.

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In the second quarter 2002 Russia intends to reduce the volume of oil supplies to the Republic of Belarus, said the Russia’s Ministry of energy representative. Supposedly, in the first quarter of this year the level of Russian petroleum supplies into the country will reach 3,7mln tons (with the planned 3,5mln tons), while in the second quarter it will expectedly fall to 3,4mln. The major oil suppliers to Belarus are the petroleum giants “Surgutneftegas”, LUKOIL, YUKOS, “Slavneft” and “Sibneft”.

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For the first three weeks of March the growth of the consumer’s prices in Belarus was equal to 1.9%. This figure was informed by the Ministry of Statistics and analysis of Belarus. Despite of the tendencies of slower rise of prices in March as compared to earlier months of 2002 (in January the growth was equal to 6.3%, in February to 3.6%), taken as a whole inflation from the beginning of the year has made 11.8%. This index has reached a half of the year’s anticipated inflation level.

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The greater number of Belarusians start believing that they are living worse than Russians. Such a conclusion was drawn by the specialists from the Media Group “Soyuz” and the group of companies “monitoring.ru” in a series of polls, held in February 2002. When asked who lives better of the two, 47% of Belarusian nationals said Russians. A year ago only 41% claimed it was so. In Russia 56% believe that they live better than Belarusians, while a year ago there were 52%.

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