The Commonwealth of Independent States, which has been long perceived as a politically dead structure, seems to reanimate. The initiative emanates from president Vladimir Putin, who has been particularly active these days. The head of Russia initiated unscheduled meeting with the incumbents of five CIS countries in Moscow on February 23. Pundits wonder why on earth would he need to stage what they call “a crawling CIS summit”, for since the moment of their last meeting in Kiev there has passed less than a month.

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On February 18 in Smolensk there took place a meeting of delegations of the Federation of independent trade unions of Russia and Federation of trade unions of Belarus. They raised the issues of bilateral relations, the treaty on cooperation, the work between the Coordination councils of FITUR and FTU and other forms of cooperation, along with the membership in international trade union organizations and relations with the International Labor Organization.

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At the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s session in Vienna they held voting today on the status of the “national assembly” of Belarus. UCP press-service reports that 18 delegations voted for postponement of the issue’s consideration till next session, 5 abstained and 20 voted in favor of legitimization. The “national assembly” of Belarus hasn’t been recognized by the OSCE PA as a legitimate legislative body ever after the illegitimate referendum of 1996, which prolonged Lukashenko’s tenure in office.

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Due to the violations, which occurred in course of the local elections’ preparatory stage, the Molodechno affiliate of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee addressed the Central Electoral Commission for Belarus, Minsk regional electoral commission and Molodechno inter-district procuracy with the complaint over the occurring violations of legislation.

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There are practically no state institutions left in Belarus, whose employees would be elected and not appointed. The officials’ power is next to unlimited, while they receive small wages and extort money from clients. “Izvestia” correspondent reports that such a concluding remark is contained in another of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee’s rapports to the International Helsinki Federation for human rights.

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Most countries of the globe began evacuating their citizens in connection with the looming military invasion of Iraq by USA. Belarus’ neighbors are also following suit: Ukraine, for instance, left only one official in the embassy. A group of Russian diplomats also departed Baghdad. Belarus, however, isn’t going to withdraw their diplomats from the city, nor the workers, employed under contracts there, Radio Svaboda was told by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry. The statesmen claim that any evacuation plans are premature, while the real danger of American air strikes is too exaggerated. As claimed by the independent political pundits, by so doing the Belarusian leadership once again demonstrates to the world their solidarity with Saddam Hussein’s pariah regime.

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