When swearing an oath of allegiance to the Constitution in 1994 the first Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko pledged that he would make his nation happy to the full. Nine years passed since then. It turned out to be quite a thorny road for us. Happiness has never been attained, but we all suffered numerous losses, such as the freedom of speech, press, conscience and the freedom to live. As a result, the so-called Belarusian issue has been oftentimes included into the daily agendas of international political forums.

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Administration of the local food department imposed a ban on selling at the premises of a supermarket #20 of a weekly periodical “Borisovskiye Novosti”. This is the fifth such store in which they evicted distributors of the popular town’s edition. As BelaPAN was told by its editor and founder Anatoly Bukas, this is yet another step, continuing a willful campaign, aimed at the curtailment of the newspaper’s print run, unleashed by the authorities since June 1.

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The new appointee to the post George Krol will arrive in Belarus in early September, reports the US embassy in Minsk. Previously it was said that Mr.Krol was appointed to the high post upon the decision of the US president in early May this year. In the first half of 90ies the diplomat worked in Minsk as deputy of an ambassador David Suorts and afterwards as the American charge-d’affaires in Belarus. Prior to the new appointment, Krol worked as an envoy of the US diplomatic mission in Moscow. Moreover, he also used to work in the US diplomatic representation in Kiev.

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Yesterday the political forces announced the formation of another crew of candidates for parliamentary seats. The United Civil Party, the Party of communists of Belarus, Belarusian Popular Front, Belarusian Social-Democratic Gromada and the Belarusian Labor Party nominated at their common meeting the lists of potential candidates, due to contend at the ballot. Overall, there are over 300 people, willing to engage in the ballot. Therefore, this draft list of candidates is too long for now. The adherents of political parties should be optimistic about that: their candidates can easily cover all 110 voting constituencies, which will be formed ahead of the elections into the Belarusian parliament.

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Another issue of the “Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” saw light under the heading of the Russian “Novaya Gazeta”. The issue was received by subscribers both in Belarus and abroad. The newspaper can also be purchased from the private distributors. “BDG” editor-in-chief Svetlana Kalinkina confirms that the previous print run of 10thsd copies had been all sold out in less than a week. It got published in Moscow and was legally transported into Belarus. The upcoming issue of the “Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” will get published alongside with the “Novaya Gazeta”. This will happen in a week’s time, on August 19, after which the editorial board plans to renew the publishing in Belarus, as far as there will expire a three-month penalty term, imposed on BDG by the Information Ministry.

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Thorough attention on part of the employees of the Belarusian law-enforcement structures was provoked by the seminars on training politicians of the next generation, organized by the Freidrich Ebert foundation in the regions of Belarus. Literally a few days prior to the start of the seminars representatives of the law-enforcement bodies started to scrupulously examine the agenda of seminars, as well as to investigate into the origin and present location of the overseas lecturers.

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The government of Russian Federation dispatched to the government of Belarus a special letter signed by Vice-Premier Viktor Khristenko concerning the creation of a joint venture on the basis of “Beltransgas”, reported the well-informed source in the government of Russia.

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