http://belarus.blogsome.com Media, blogs and my personal thoughts about Belarus' elections in 2006 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:10:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I’ve just finished reading Timothy Snyder’s impressive volume “The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999.” Although this book is not as detailed about Belarus as about the intricacies of Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Lithuanian relations within the nation-building process, I’d still highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Belarus ... http://belarus.blogsome.com/2009/11/07/a-must-read-book-from-timothy-snyder/ OK, here’s another laughable story for you. As I wrote earlier, BPF Party has recently elected a new leader, Yanukevich, who was in opposition to the old party elite. The party did not split as it had happened in the past when an old party leader could not accept to ... http://belarus.blogsome.com/2009/11/05/p243/ For quite a while, I’ve been intrigued by Estonia, the fatherland of Skype and Hotmail, the most wired country in Europe, the only Nordic post-soviet state, as it is often portrayed in the media. True, some of it is just hype, clever image-making, but Estonians have, indeed, shown some staggering ... http://belarus.blogsome.com/2009/11/05/e-stonia/ Go to the most popular Lithuanian news site, delfi.lt, and glance at the comment section below any politically charged article. You will most definitely see how Lithuanian residents of major local ethnicities – Lithuanians, Russians, Poles, Belarusians – verbally battle one another. And what a heated debate that is! The ... http://belarus.blogsome.com/2009/10/30/the-ills-of-babylonian-vilnius/ Seems like this blog has gradually taken form of a rather critical one as it comes to analysis of the Belarusian political reality. And it’s not just the current political regime that I find some inner urge to grumble about. There are many problems in the opposition camp, as well. ... http://belarus.blogsome.com/2009/10/23/belarusian-pro-independence-block-wtf/ Here’s an interesting take from TED Fellow and Belarusian journalist Evgeny Morozov on the ways the Internet can actually help oppressive regimes stifle dissent. I agree with most of his points. Especially, I concur with him that support for NGOs, dissidents, intellectuals is very important. Simply relying on the spread ... http://belarus.blogsome.com/2009/09/23/evgeny-morozov-how-the-net-aids-dictatorships/ 19 September, 1991, the white-red-white flag was voted to become the official flag of Belarus. Just in few years, it would be scrapped by Alexander Lukashenka. Since 1995, Belarus has lived under the soviet-style symbols again. There’s a myth circulated by some media outlets that back in 1991 Lukashenka was ... http://belarus.blogsome.com/2009/09/19/white-red-white-vs-red-green/ It’s a pity so little is written on Belarus in English these days. No, I don’t mean blunt news translations published on a bunch of websites. I don’t mean analytical summaries printed by think tanks, RFE\RL, some foundations, etc. There are just a handful of English-language blogs focusing on this ... http://belarus.blogsome.com/2009/09/12/lots-of-blogs-about-belarus-very-few-in-english/ It’s been an unforgettable summer. On a personal note, I have changed my marital status. Yep, not single any more. Our honeymoon was the best journey I’ve ever been to. We traveled Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, France, and Netherlands. Made new friends, swam in the Northern Sea, which turned out to ... http://belarus.blogsome.com/2009/09/05/yanukevich-is-a-fresh-bpf-chairman/ VIRGINIA – on July 17, 2009 a federal judge sentenced Viktar Krus to 7 years in prison for creating and running an illegal ring that supplied cheap workers to the East Coast resorts and railroad yards. 22 other co-defendants have been convicted in the case. (read on at Bielar.us blog) http://belarus.blogsome.com/2009/07/20/belarusian-sentenced-to-7-years-for-creating-an-illegal-workers-empire/