On September 1 journalists Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mozheiko of the Grodno newspaper “Pagonya” started serving their terms in the special institutions of the Osipovichi (Mogilev region) and Zhlobin (Grodno region). On the same day the editor of the newspaper Nikolai Markevich sent to his “Pagonya” colleagues his first letter from the Osipovichi colony, describing the living conditions there. Read below the full text of the message:

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The district court of Minsk started on Monday to consider the lawsuit on recognizing the missing general Yuri Zakharenko as dead. The concomitant petition had been submitted by his wife Olga, reports Reuters.

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Participants of yesterday’s entrepreneurial strike upheld the proposal of the action’s organizer – the United Council of entrepreneurs – to the government: to decide on holding the round table by September 3. Supposedly, the event will attract both businessmen and governmental officials. In the event the government fails to convene a round table, the protesters will ponder further actions at the United Council of entrepreneurs. Meantime, a strike continues in some of the Belarusian towns. For instance, reports radio “Unistar”, the Minsk fairs “Kupalovsky” and “Parking” are closed for today.

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Just like most of you I find great pleasure in the hysteria of the Belarusian leadership over Vladimir Putin’s last initiative. It’s a fun to watch the reaction of mass media, which seem to have swapped roles. Every evening I switch on my TV set and make myself comfortable in the armchair, so that no inconvenience could distract me from seeing the infuriated faces, which are cursing Russia and the union state in particular.

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In a conversation with IA “Rosbalt” correspondent the analyst of the consulting company “Vermont.Ltd” Georgy Islentiev noted that “Lukashenko’s economic policy is being build under old Lenin’s principle – take everything away, don’t give anything in return and impede in any ways possible the technical progress. As a result we get what we deserve: official Minsk distorts economic data and conceals the true picture. This phenomenon had been commonplace during Brezhnev’s era. Experts of our consulting company examined the statistical data about the allegedly developing Belarusian economy and came to the conclusion that there are distortions.

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The new national law will apply this definition to Belarusians with a permanent foreign residence. The international public organization “World Association of Belarusians “Batkauschina”” believes that the passage of the new draft law on the “countrymen living abroad” will produce a dissent among the Belarusian community. The press-release reads that most of the Belarusians, living abroad, are categorically opposed to being identified as “compatriots of unidentified nationality”.

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took place on September 1 throughout Belarus. Among the strikers were the entrepreneurs, working at markets and fairs. They protested against the current state policy in the small business sphere. Around 3 thousand individual businessmen joined the action in Minsk. They were supported by their colleagues from Mogilev, Gomel. Kalinkovichi, Mozyr, Osipovichi and Pukhovichy. In Mozyr the strikers were joined by the cab drivers.

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On August 31 journalists of the Grodno-based newspaper “Pagonya” Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mozheiko, found by court guilty of libeling Lukashenko, left for the punishment locations, defined by the Penal Inspection of the Oktyabrsky district of Grodno. Mozheiko will be serving his term in Zhlobin (Gomel region), while Markevich – in Osipovichi (Mogilev region).

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Lukashenko, as compared to many of his colleagues, is a modest person: he didn’t stage any public celebrations to mark his 48th birthday. Were it not for the Belarusian opposition, nobody would remember the day.

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Alexander Lukashenko forwarded his regards to the leader of the Great Social People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiria, colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the whole of the Libyan nation on the occasion of their national holiday – the Day of the Revolution.

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