“Moskovsky Komsomolets” Opposed to Belarusian Boredom :: Charter'97 :: News

According to the Minister of information of Belarus Mikhail Podgainy, on June 15 in the “Belsoyuzpechat” news agent’s network there will appear “Moskovsky Komsomolets” issue with a print run of 10,000 copies. The editor of the first issue is Igor Osinsky (a few years ago he was editor-in-chief of the “Sovietskaya Belorussiya” and later – of “Belorussiya”).

Radio Ratsya reports that an interview under the rubric “Word to a reader”, which comes up on the front page, reads that the “MK” has never appeared in Belarus before. During the Soviet times the newspaper was sold in Minsk alone and later the Belarusian authorities were opposed to it. Today, though, says Osinsky, the newspaper’s founders have the right to publish the paper in Belarus in accordance with the signed on February 1998 Belarusian-Russian “Agreement on cooperation in publishing”.

Such a necessity, claim the founders, exists because the “MK” is contributing to the progress in unification between the two countries. The weekly periodical will publish the best materials, while the Belarusian part of the newspaper (10-12 pages) will be prepared by the local editorial board and cover the post poignant social and political events in the country. Osinsky harbors hope that the first issues will dispel the Ministry of press’s fears, owing to which they delay the newspaper’s re-registration.