The Belarusian bank Infobank, accused of money-laundering for the regime of Saddam Hussein by The U.S. Treasury Department, has decided to change its name. Now the provisional application is considered by the National bank of Belarus. On a national scale of Belarus Infobank is an average-sized private bank, but it is considered to be close to the Belarusian authorities, and many transactions with the Arab world are carried out by it.
Aleksandr Tsynkevich, a member of the United Civic Party (UCP) who ran for parliament in last year’s elections, on Tuesday was summoned to a district prosecutor’s office in Minsk for questioning over an election leaflet that the authorities think defames Belarus’ top officials. It was the leaflet distributed by Mr. Tsynkevich’s camp that prompted the election authorities to remove the candidate from the ballot in Minsk’s number 105 district.
The EU enlargement to the East will be possible, because it will be required. The Ukraine’s case is predetermined, though Europe had not said a confirmative “yes” yet. Brussels must also work out what to do with Belarus and Moldova, told Stanislaw Ciosek, a top adviser on foreign policy to Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, in Kyiv at a press conference dedicated to Polish concept of the EU’s eastern policy.
The Belarusian congress of democratic trade unions addressed a statement to the International Labour Organization about the disinclination of the authorities of Belarus to make improvements in the state with trade unions rights. This problem is to become one of the topics of the discussion at the regional European ILO conference, which is to take place in Budapest on February 14-18.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, barred from entering countries in the West, leaves here Wednesday for Lebanon where he is to make an official visit, his press office said Tuesday, declining to specify how many days the visit was scheduled to last.
On February 1 the member of the National Committee of the United Civil Party, the president of the liquidated Belarusian Association of Young Politicians Alyaksandr Tsynkevich was summoned to the prosecutor’s Office of the Central District of Minsk for giving explanations regarding the election campaign in the 105 Staravilensky electoral district. As we have informed, Alyaksandr Tsynkevich was removed from the electoral race four days before the elections and referendum. The district commission discovered libel and statements insulting honour and dignity of Lukashenka in the agitation leaflets disseminated by the initiative group of Alyaksandar Tsynkevich. The Central electoral Committee of Belarus upheld this decision and submitted the materials of the case to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Central district of Minsk.
KGB officers in Mahilyou region are showing interest in the activities of the democratic activists. This interest has grown recently. Last Friday the editor-in-chief of the Krychau independent newspaper “Volny Horad” and the head of the regional branch of the United Civil Party Syarhei Nyarouny, was summoned to the KGB for a conversation. Syarhei Nyarouny was asked about some articled printed in the newspaper “Volny Horad”. In particular, the article about the conflict in the Krychau regional veteran organization, which was reported on by the newspaper and which, according to the information of Nyarouny, the authorities were trying to hush up before the 60th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
A delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s ad hoc Working Group on Belarus, led by the group’s head, Uta Zapf, on Tuesday arrived in Minsk on a three-day visit.
In June 2001 the professor Yury Bandazhewski was sentenced to eight years of jail for alleged bribery. Then his term was reduced to six years as a result of an amnesty. The professor spent a part of his prison term in Minsk. Human rights activists believe the professor was imprisoned for his scientific investigations of the influence of small dozes of radiation on human body. In France there was established a committee in defense of the professor, Amnesty International and scientists of different countries send the authorities letters with requests to release Yury Bandazhewski so that he would have the possibility to continue his scientific activity.
On 26 January the trading enterprise “Mahiliowkniha” returned the non-sold copies of ARCHE magazine to the public distributor Ales Asiptsow who was a mediator between the enterprise and the editorial board of the magazine. At the same time, the administration of “Mahiliowkniha” stated broke the agreement with the editorial board of ARCHE and wouldn’t sell the magazine at newsstands and bookstores, explaining it with the weak demand for it, proving it with a number of old copies of the magazine that weren’t bought.
If there is anyone who does not reproach [Belarusian President] Alyaksandr Lukashenka for his political power, then it is Russia. The 5th anniversary was marked on Wednesday [26 January], of when the agreement creating a union state [of Russia and Belarus] came into effect.
Belarus` opposition accused President Alexander Lukashenko of hatching plans to build a nuclear power plant in the ex-Soviet republic, which has suffered severely from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. Vladimir Parfenovich, a former lawmaker and an opposition activist, claimed that Lukashenko`s government had approved a program calling for construction on a nuclear plant to begin this year.
Belarus has raised fees for oil products transit by nearly 75 percent to $0.89 per tonne in one its pipelines, the Economy Ministry said on Tuesday. Russian oil majors YUKOS (YUKO.RTS), LUKOIL (LKOH.RTS), TNK-BP (BP.L) and Sibneft (SIBN.RTS) use Belarusian pipelines to send their oil products to Eastern and Central Europe.
Bialystok, 1 February: Poland and Belarus will soon form special groups of experts with the view to introducing joint customs clearance at the common border, the two countries` customs services chiefs informed at Bobrowniki, Podlasie Province, on Tuesday [1 February].
Contrary to conflicting reports earlier this month, the Chernobyl Children Lifeline`s Lochaber Link will welcome youngsters to the local area this year. Statements early in January, attributed to Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko, made it sound as if countries like the UK might "corrupt" the minds of the visiting Chernobyl children.
On 1 February the investigators of Minsk Prosecutor’s Office with Uladzimir Chumachenka at the head tried to forcibly take Anton Filimonaw for stationary psychiatric expertise. Anton is the son of the journalist Veranika Charkasava, who was killed in October 2004.
Belarusian officials came under attack from their Polish counterparts at a meeting of a joint commission on international road transport held in Minsk last week.
Belarus’ first-ever satellite channel targeting foreign viewers went on the air on February 1. Aleksandr Martynenko, deputy head of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company (BSTRC), told reporters on Tuesday that the channel, named Belarus-TV, will broadcast from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. seven days a week.
The Belarusian authorities plan to extradite to Russia two ethnic Chechens who are suspected of involvement in the murder of Paul Klebnikov, the editor of the Russian version of Forbes magazine.
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