The government of Russia critically views the decision of the Belarusian authorities to close down NTV office in Belarus, commented the high-ranking official from the Russian Cabinet of Ministers on the recent incident in Minsk.

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The Supreme Economic Court of Belarus today partially annulled the Information Ministry’s reprimand, issued against “BDG’s” supplement “BDG: For special use” for materials, dedicated to the “case of Kazeko”, in particular for the series of materials under a common name “Afghan dogs” and an article “Magic crystal”. The Supreme Economic Court found out that the newspaper doesn’t really justify the illicit activities of Viktor Kazeko and his son in an article “Afghan dogs”. However, the jury ruled that in the “Magic crystal” publication the law-enforcers are indeed portrayed as lobbyists of the criminal structures’ interests, Charter’97 press-center was told by deputy director general of “Marat” Lubov Vashkevich.

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One of the tasks in investigating into the disappearance of ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky, according to the Belarusian human rights advocates, is the formation of the joint investigative group, which would include, apart from the Belarusian detectives, also investigators from the Russian procuracy general.

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Belarusian official politics in the persons of “deputies” and opposition leaders partially moved these days to the Rotterdam of Netherlands, which hosts on July 5-9 the summer session of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Although the Belarusian item wasn’t officially placed on the daily agenda of the forum, the European democrats didn’t keep our country in oblivion.

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Around a hundred people engaged in the action in commemoration of the missing Belarusian journalist Dmitry Zavadsky, held on July 7 in the Oktyabrskaya square of Minsk. The protesters raised the portraits of Dmitry and those, who went missing without trace, that is Viktor Gonchar, Yuri Zakharenko and Anatoly Krasovsky. The whole thing lasted for around an hour, attracting relatives of the missing ones – Olga and Svetlana Zavadskaya, Irina Krasovskaya, as well as certain public and political figures – Andrei Klimov, Valery Schukin, Nikolai Khalezin, Alexander Dobrovolsky, Valentina Polevikova, Nikolai Statkevich and others.

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The plenary of the OSCE Permanent Council ushered in hot debates on Belarus. The delegates of the “national assembly”, upheld by the Russian Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznev, sought to remove the Belarusian draft resolution item from the session’s agenda. To do this they needed 1/3 votes. However, they failed to achieve that goal even after the repeated voting. Only four delegations agreed that the situation in Belarus complies with the OSCE standards, while 27 delegations voted out the removal of draft resolution on Belarus from the session’s daily agenda.

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On July 7 in Rotterdam the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly hosted a round-table “Free and fair parliamentary elections in Belarus – a crucial role of changing electoral legislation”. The round-table was marked by a row – the official Belarusian delegation, along with representatives of the local Belarusian diplomatic compound, ignored that forum.

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According to the head of the Minsk IREX office Robert Ortega, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry demanded to liquidate their office by August 7 at the latest.

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On July 7, 2000 he arrived at the “Minsk-2” airport, left his car in a parking lot, entered the arrival hall and… disappeared. So far, nothing is known about his fate. Time is passing by and people start forgetting about Dmitry Zavadsky’s case. He’s no longer on the police wanted list. But Dmitry’s wife and son are still waiting for him every day. “Komsomolskaya Pravda” correspondent asked ordinary citizens in the streets whether or not they know who Dmitry Zavadsky is.

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On July 7 the country’s prosecutor general Viktor Sheiman reported to Alexander Lukashenko of the state of law and order in the country, as well as the procuracy’s activities over the past fortnight. BELTA was told this in the presidential pressroom. Viktor Sheiman told Alexander Lukashenko about the outcomes of the investigation into the fulfillment of laws on the preservation of state property and compliance with the financial discipline in the Information Ministry’s sphere. The findings of the procuracy’s inspections showed that there exist serious drawbacks and law violations in the ministerial work at the moment.

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Marking the third year since the vanishing of Dmitry Zavadsky, the Belarusian community in Netherlands went for an action of protest in Rotterdam. The picket was organized by representatives of the Belarusian-European association and the Belarusian Center in Belgium. The OSCE PA summer session’s building was picketed by over 20 protesters with the portraits of the missing Belarusians. The picketers also raised English and French banners and national white-red-white flags, Charter’97 press-center was told by the Belarusian center in Belgium.

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