President Alexander Lukashenko has embarked on a new crackdown against democracy activists and independent journalists, with his agents systematically harassing, arresting, firing or beating up people even remotely connected with the opposition in last year`s presidential campaign.

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Although the political relations between Russia and Belarus cooled off recently, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry still expects to be given by the Russian government a third portion of the state loan worth $40mln.

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Minsk procuracy interrogated a spouse of the missing businessman Anatoly Krasovsky Irina. According to BelaPAN, Irina Krasovskaya pleaded with the procuracy to attach to her husband’s case files the documents, which have been published in media before: copies of various documentation, interview of the former chief of the confinement center Oleg Alkaev, ex-Minister of agriculture Vassily Leonov, KGB general in reserve Valery Kez and others.

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Hundreds of people, mostly traders from local markets, assembled for a meeting, demanding resignation of Lukashenko. The protesters expressed dissatisfaction with his economic policy and the fall in the living standard in the country.

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In the near future the Ministry of justice is not planning to forward to court the documents for the liquidation of the United Civil Party (UCP), BelaPAN was told on August 26 by the head of the department of public relations of the Ministry Mikhail Sukhinin.

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Leadership of the Belarusian state television forwarded a letter to the chairman of the “2nd national channel ONT” with a request to provide explanations to the recent unsanctioned broadcasting in an August 21 newscast a fragment of a friendly between the soccer squads from Belarus and Latvia, reads the BELTA press-release.

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Over the period August 1- August 14, 2002 inflation amounted to 1,2% with the analogous figure for the whole of July, reported the Ministry of statistics and analysis.

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