Both Minsk and the Kremlin are equally uninterested in a bilateral escalation over energy supplies. The parties are likely to make mutual concessions: resume duty free oil supplies to Belarusian oil refineries and repay overdue debt for the Russian gas supplied at a discount in H1 2016. That said, read more

In H1 2016, none of the key economic development targets for 2016 was met, due to unjustified reckoning on the improvement of the situation on foreign markets. Belarus’ economic policy is unlikely to change before the end of 2016 and its main goal would be to freeze the foreign market situation and read more

In July 2016, president Alexander​ Lukashenka appointed two new ambassadors – to China and to Georgia. read more

In June the Investigatory Committee of Belarus confirmed that Eduard Paĺčys, the editor of the website 1863x.com, was extradited from Russia and is undergoing criminal investigation. read more

The parliamentary election campaign has begun in Belarus. read more

Louis Mayer, one of the founders of the Hollywood studio Metro-Golden-Mayer and the ‘inventor’ of the Oscar award was born in Minsk. read more

On 20 July 2016 at 7:45 am a bomb went off in a car in Kiev. The explosion killed Pavel Sheremet, a prominent Belarusian journalist working in Ukraine. read more

Thousands of mourners strode in a solemn procession through Kyiv’s Ukrainian House on July 22 to honor journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was killed in a car bombing that has shaken Ukraine’s media community and sent shock waves into Russia and Belarus. read more

New Belarusian coins keep surprising people. VKontakte user Alyaksandr Danski has uploaded the photo of a 2-rouble coin that fell apart in his hands. read more

In anticipation of a positive feedback from the West, the Belarusian authorities have broadened frameworks for the opposition in the ongoing parliamentary campaign. read more

Belarusian-American military cooperation will directly depend on bilateral political dialogue. That said, Belarus and the United States do not seem to have high ambitions to drastically improve the bilateral relations. Primarily, this is due to limited coinciding interests of the two countries read more

Amid reduced corporate debt on loans, since early 2016, distressed bank assets grew by 86%. Bad debt is on the rise due to restrictions on concessional lending to the economy and high interest rates on loans. Under the conditions of excess liquidity, banks will continue to lower rates on loans, but read more