Opposition Communist party’s weekly resumes publication :: Charter'97 :: News

The Tovarishch (Comrade), the weekly published by the Belarusian Party of Communists, has resumed publication after a nearly six-month break caused by the refusal of Belarusian companies to print the paper.

The weekly had its contract with the state-run Belarusian Printing House terminated after coming out with an issue urging the public to vote against removing the term limit on the presidency in the October 17 referendum. The issue, which never appeared in newsstands and reached subscribers, was expected to be printed in a record 30,000 copies.

As Tovarishch Editor-in-Chief Sergei Voznyak said in an interview with BelaPAN, the newspaper was rejected by all printing plants in Belarus and finally signed a contract with a plant in Smolensk, a Russian city some 70 kilometers away from the Belarusian border. “Surprisingly, it’s cheaper to print the paper there than in any of Belarusian plants, even given all transportation costs,” Mr. Voznyak stressed.

The weekly will have a modest print-run of 3,000 copies at the initial stage but plans to restore its circulation to last year’s level in future, according to the chief editor.