We congratulate you with the New Year! Our congratulations and best wishes are addressed for those who was with us – our readers and friends, whose number grows with every day, to all those who helped the site to survive this hard year. We congratulate Viktar, Evgeniy, Sergey, Nikolay, Ekaterina, Alexandr, Andrey, Yuri, Aleh and Natallya, Svyatlana, Yuri and Elena, Vitaliy, Vladik, Andrey, Katsyaryna, Iryna, Elena, Zoya and Alyaksandar, Svyatlana and Henadz, Elena and Vladimir from Minsk, Vladimir from Bialystok, Vladimir, Anatoliy, Halina, Cathy, SnakeRanger from New York, Igor from the USA, Yury from Europe, Leon and friends from Pittsburgh, Dmitry, Tatiana and Yana from Asipovichy, Maria from Lublin, Olga and Vladimir from Minneapolis, Steve, John, Robert, Ivetta, Ilya and Irina from Washington, Raisa and Mikhail from Stolbtsy, Jan from Warsaw, Uladzimir. Special thanks to a Belarusian from Madrid, who helped a mother having many children, who was fired from work for participation in People’s March.

For yours and our freedom!

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The New-York-based NGO Freedom House classified Belarus as "not free" and Ukraine as "partly free" in its annual survey of freedom and democracy around the world, released on 18 December, according to Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, Prague, Czech Republic. Belarus is the only country in Europe ranked in the "not free" category, which comprises 48 countries worldwide. "There are two of the 12 former Soviet countries [in which], despite the difficulties, there is some possibility of forward momentum," Freedom House analyst Adrian Karatnycky told RFE/RL.

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Mikalay Statkevich, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (People`s Hramada) (BSDP), told Belapan that the local election [on 2 March] had been the most notable event for his party this year. "Considering the situation in which the election was held, 24 seats won by the party is not a bad result," he said and added that the election had showed that the BSDP is in a good shape and its candidates are capable of being elected. Another important achievement of the BSDP was its upgrading from observer to consultative member in the Socialist International, Statkevich said.

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Belarusian Supreme Court Judge Svyatlana Yakhnavets has dismissed a complaint filed by the Assembly of NGOs unregistered public association concerning a decision by the Justice Ministry.

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