SERGEY NIKOLYUK

Moscow has no other ways to maintain relations with Minsk but to support Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s regime. Despite the conflicts, neither side will raise the question of Belarus-Russia Union project termination. I believe the current leaders would not like to go down in history as destroyers of the Belarus-Russia Union.

VALERY KARBALEVICH

Europe concluded that its previous tactics (democratization demand, sanctions toward Belarus’ authorities, support for the opposition) were inefficient. Poland and Lithuania urged the EU to change its policy towards Minsk. Germany is also interested in development of economic relations with Belarus.

SERGEY NIKOLYUK

Minsk’s probable participation in the EU’s foreign-policy program “Eastern Partnership” is evidence of serious changes in Belarus. Rapprochement between Brussels and Minsk and, in general, of Belarus and the West is connected with the liberalization processes in Belarus, first and foremost, in the economic sphere.

YAROSLAV ROMANCHUK

The policy followed by the Belarusian authorities during the financial and economic crisis confirms the axiom of the economic influence on the politics. In Belarus the economic situation exerts considerable influence upon the politics.

SVYATOSLAV POLKHOV

Minsk has recently supported the EU’s new foreign-policy program “Eastern Partnership” and has already confirmed its readiness to formalize the program jointly with the European Commission, said Andrey Popov, spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

VALERY KARBALEVICH

Several factors influenced the change of EU policy towards Belarus and the lifting of the sanctions for some Belarusian officials in the EU. But it is difficult to speak about the public opinion changes in view of the change in Europe-Belarus relations.

PAVEL USOV

The main question, which has arisen before the Belarusian political elite, is with whom they should build relationships, with the East or with the West. The current political situation indicates that Belarus has reached a geopolitical impasse.

YAROSLAV ROMANCHUK

The oil conflict showed the extreme weakness of the regulatory framework of the bilateral relations between Belarus and Russia, lack of legal culture, and powerful potential for conflicts development.

ANDREY KAZAKEVICH

Belarus-Russia Union State has never existed. Since 2002 the Union State bodies have not made any important decisions, they have not achieved any serious breakthroughs.

YAROSLAV ROMANCHUK

Aliaksandr Lukashenka has concentrated all Belarusian diplomacy and Belarus’ foreign policy on Russia. For the last 10 years Minsk has conducted explicitly unilateral foreign policy in order to win Moscow’s favor.

YAROSLAV ROMANCHUK

If to judge about the Belarusian-Russian relations just by the crude figures of the Belarus’ trade balance, the two countries are definitely at a trade war.

YAROSLAV ROMANCHUK

Regardless all Moscow and Minsk’s assurances about mutual understanding, progress and relationships improvement, the course of discussion and passing of the most important documents do show that the integration between Belarus and Russia remains on paper.

YAROSLAV ROMANCHUK

The format of meetings is usually determined by two parties. Since Aliaksandr Milinkevich needs publicity (he needs to introduce himself, promote his team and his election program), it was definitely the Russian party, who had chosen not to advertise his visit. And it is logical. Firstly, it was the first high-level meeting of the Belarusian presidential candidate from democratic forces with the Russian policymakers.

YAROSLAV ROMANCHUK

Lukashenka is aware of the fact that the Kremlin officials discuss various scenarios of Russia’s reaction to the upcoming political events in Belarus.

Eurasian Home with a kind permission of The Pontis Foundation and The Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies publishes a paper, prepared by Gleb Shymanovich, "Belarus external debt: Sustaining Levels in a Time of Global Crisis". The paper takes a close look at how Belarus´ foreign debt is structured and what potential impact it could have on the Belarusian economy in the upcoming period.

Eurasian Home with a kind permission of The Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS) publishes a study “What Eastern Partnership should bring to Belarus”, in which BISS analyzes possibilities of the Eastern Partnership initiative and its potential to transform Belarusian political regime.

Eurasian Home with a kind permission of The Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS) publishes the analytical report “Belarus: Shaping the Space for Change”, which reflects directions of panel discussions as well as conclusions made on their basis during the second annual international conference carried out in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 11-12 November 2008.

Eurasian Home with a kind permission of the Pontis Foundation publishes the Belarus Brief "The End of ENP" on the post-election situation in Belarus against the background of Brussels’ departing from its previous “soft” policy approach towards Belarus, encapsulated in the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP).

Eurasian Home with a kind permission of The Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS) publishes an article written by the BISS director Vitali Silitski. The article focuses on Belarus’ relations with Russia and the West.

Eurasian Home with a kind permission of the Pontis Foundation publishes the Belarus Brief "How the West continues to lose Belarus" on the current situation in Belarus and outlining possible scenarios for the 2007 year.

Eurasian Home with a kind permission of the Pontis Foundation publishes analysis entitled “State of the Union and the Union State”. In the light of the EU-Russia summit, the analysis offers a new look to the most important post-election development of Belarus.