Preliminary court hearings on the defamation lawsuit, filed by ZUBR activist Aleksei Shydlovsky against the official regime’s mouthpiece “Sovetskaya Belorussiya” and its editor-in-chief Pavel Yakubovich, took place on July 1. The defendant’s attorney didn’t deny the fact that the paper published false data about Aleksei Shydlovsky, claiming that the refutation can see light at any time, convenient for the plaintiff. However, the size of the compensation, which the ZUBR activist demanded – 6 million rubles from the periodical and same amount from Yakubovich – was regarded as too high by the judge. The real size of the compensation will be defined by the Sovietsky district court of Minsk on July 27.

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The session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, due to take place in Berlin on July 6-10, will be visited by two Belarusian delegations – one representing the “national assembly” and one from the Consultative Council of the opposition political parties. The Belarusian political parties at the OSCE PA session will be represented by the chairman of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko, deputy chair of BSDP (NG) Vladimir Nistuk and chairman of the Belarusian women’s party “Nadzeya” Valentina Polevikova.

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The national strike of entrepreneurs is scheduled for July 31, while starting from September 1 they can announce a limitless national strike with a cessation of tax payments and non-transfer of the funds into the budget.

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Ready goods reserves at the storehouses of the Minsk region companies reduced by 4bln rubles, “Interfax” was told by the chairman of the committee for economy and market relations of the Minsk regional council Vasily Bolsun. According to him, the curtailment of the ready goods reserves to 156bln rubles occurred due to the diminished size of stored commodity at the Gorodeisk and Slutsk sugar companies. Meantime, the committee’s chairman underscored that despite certain reduction in their amount, “the problem remains acute as ever”.

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Apparently, Belarusians are about to return to the Soviet times, when the citizens used to have two passports: one for internal use and another – for overseas trips.

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Present OSCE Chairman during his visit to Moscow discussed the situation around OSCE AMG in Belarus with the Foreign Minister of Russia, reported on July 1 the OSCE press-service. The sides discussed “further steps in overcoming the impasse around the OSCE AMG group in Minsk”.

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Vladimir Putin is doing everything right in the eyes of the West. Recently he publicly criticized for the first time the Belarusian president, who’s been playacting as dictator in the neighboring country and, despite Washington and Europe’s protests, persecutes opposition, annihilates free press and feels disgust towards the diplomats from the OSCE mission in Minsk.

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Chief editors of 38 Polish newspapers addressed the authorities and NGOs of the world with a call to protest against the verdict of the Grodno court on “Pagonya”.

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Leadership of the leading Protestant churches of Belarus passed an open address to Alexander Lukashenko, in which they proposed to the Belarusian leader to personally meet and discuss actions in order to ease tensions in the religious sphere, which may escalate as a result of the passage of the new law on the freedom of conscience. Following comes the transcript of their appeal.

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The Cabinet of Ministers of Belarus allowed to the “Naftan’ company of Novopolotsk to raise the size of all its mortgaged property in the “Bank of international trade and investments” and the National Bank to 117,525mln Belarusian rubles (equivalent of $70mln).

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Sewerage systems of Brest, Grodno, Vitebsk (Belarus) and Lvov (Ukraine) is in an unsatisfactory state, concluded the experts from the Helsinki Commission (Helcom), who studied the situation on the spot. In their opinion, the whole system must be mended.

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