The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party passed a resolution in which they seriously condemned Vladimir Putin’s policy, targeted at cooperation with the NATO alliance. The text of this document reads that “the most crucial decisions in the military strategic sphere have been passed by the Kremlin without consultations with the brotherly Belarus, which contradicts both the spirit and the letter of the treaty on the union state”. Gennady Zuganov’s touching concern about Belarus is but another oath of allegiance to the Belarusian leader, who always found supporters among Russian leftists. The Communist Party, which experiences deep crisis these days, is ostensibly hoping that Belarus will give them a helping hand at the right moment.

---

There exist no commodity which we couldn’t or had no right to supply into Syria, said Alexander Lukashenko during his Minsk meeting with the Syrian Minister of economy and foreign trade Gasan Al-Rifai. The Minister arrived in Minsk to engage in the session of the Belarusian-Syrian commission for trade, economic and scientific cooperation.

---

This can be concluded from the report on the fulfillment of the budget 2001, presented for consideration to the “house of representatives” by the Minister of finance of Belarus Nikolai Korbut. “BDG” reports that expenditures on the state governing bodies in 2001 amounted to 88bln62mln rubles, foreign activities – 53bln655mln, national defense – 182bln309mln, judiciary – 14bln523mln, science – 66bln161mln, healthcare and physical culture – 206bln445mln, social policy – 187bln29mln, education – 201bln591mln, law-enforcement bodies and security – 281bln853mln.

---

Bailiff of the Partyzansky district court of Minsk Inna Borisevich ruled to seize on June 12 the property of the Belarusian Union of writers. In late May judge of the Partyzansky court of Minsk Yuri Usik satisfied the petition of the former Union’s accountant to make the Union compensate him his salary. The BUW leadership addressed the Minsk city court chair with a plea to cancel the decision, as far as it was a responsibility of the Ministry of finance. Since July 17 last year all BUW staff members don’t get their money, for the Finance Ministry doesn’t donate them any budget subsidies for the wages. This year there’s no budget provision on the matter at all. These arguments, however, have never been paid heed to.

---

The Federation of trade unions of Belarus addressed the prosecutor general of Belarus Viktor Sheiman with a request to pass the necessary measures against the officials, who violate trade unionists’ rights, said at the June 13 press-conference in the FTU headquarters deputy chair of the Federation Evgeny Burak.

---

Failure to fulfill planned income parameters in 2001 brought about a deficit of 333bln rubles, including on VAT – 108,8bln, income tax – 42,7bln, excise tax – 86,4bln, said at the June 12 the Minister of finance Nikolai Korbut when presenting in the “house of representatives” a report on the fulfillment of the state budget in 2001.

---

Belarus, which experiences investment hunger, realizes that there’s no way it can attract capital into the agricultural sector, so they only count on a more rational usage of means. “We intend to sharply reduce the number of personnel in all governing agricultural structures. This will bring to the economy another 140bln BLR a year,” – said the Minister of agriculture and foodstuffs Mikhail Rusui. Staff redundancy is designed to reduce the cost of the agricultural products this year by 30%.

---

Seemingly, some of the Minsk legislators misinterpret an eternal market law – “marketing is trade’s propellant”. It was determined to test this truth in Minsk conditions. So, under the ruling of the Minsk city council of deputies, from July 1, 2002 they plan to introduce an additional 5% fare for the services of marketing promoters.

---

On June 13 the Belarusian National Bank received second part of the Russian Central Bank’s loan worth 1,5bln Russian rubles, said the NB press-secretary Mikhail Zhuravovich. This became possible not until they signed in Moscow a Plan of concerted action of the governments of the two states, the National Bank of Belarus and the Central Bank of Russia on the introduction of a single monetary unit by 2005.

---

Representatives of the “Rostselmash” factory and the Minsk Tractor Plant (MTP) are negotiating over the possibility to form a joint venture to manufacture agricultural machinery, said during the international exhibition in Minsk “Belagro-2002” director for economy-related issues of the Russian company Evgeny Volkov.

---

US Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed Russia with a plea to use her influence in order to help solve the problems, which arise in the relations between Belarus and OSCE. Powell made his statement during the Wednesday press-conference following his meeting with the Foreign Minister of Russia Igor Ivanov.

---

PACE Commission for legal affairs and human rights, chaired by Eduard Lintner, will convene on June 13 in Saratov. The European parliamentarians among other things plan to discuss the human rights situation in Belarus and Chechnya. These days the tensions between the official Minsk and OSCE are escalating – not so long ago the Belarusian authorities annulled diplomatic accreditation of the OSCE mission’s staffer Andrew Carpenter, although his tenure hasn’t expired yet. It’s worth mention that Alexander Lukashenko himself planed to embark on a working visit to Saratov on June 9-10. However, he suddenly changed his mind.

---

Grodno court continues hearings on the legal action, instituted against “Pagonya” journalists Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mozheiko. At the last session, held on June 12, they listened to the testimony of the witnesses and also to an expert in linguistics.

---

On Friday June 14 the 90th session of the International Labor Organization in Geneva, which opened on June 3, will hold hearings on Belarus. They will take place in the absence of the official delegation of our country. The government said they have no means for the purpose. However, even if they find the money, the Belarusian delegation would all the same be denied accreditation, as far as the government didn’t include into the list of delegates a representative from the biggest trade unionist organization – the Federation of trade unions of Belarus. Nonetheless, leaders of both national professional centers of Belarus – FTU and the Congress of democratic trade unions – participate in the conference within the quota of the International confederation of free trade unions.

---

In the morning June 11 the farmers of the “Lepelsky” husbandry went on an unprepared strike. The farmers refused to start their working day. Their main demand is to get the wages by the end of the week, which they haven’t seen since March. “We’ve got no bread at home, they switched off electricity and phones,” – complain the people.

---

In order to attract foreign investments into the country, modernize and reconstruct the petroleum complex companies they organized activities on reforming seven companies of the “Belneftehim” concern – “Naftan”, “Polimir”, “Azot”, “Belshina”, “MPO Himvolokno”, “SPO Himvolokno” and “GPO Himvolokno”.

---