Originally published at Belarus Digest. Please leave any comments there.

Last week, the Board of Trustees of the Peace Prize of German Publishers and Booksellers Association have chosen the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich as the recipient of this year’s Peace Prize.

In a subsequent interview with the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ( Read more... )

Originally published at Belarus Digest. Please leave any comments there.

The German-Belarusian trade balance reached an all-time high in 2012. However, many German experts regret that it stays far below its full potential - primarily because of bad image of Belarus as well as unfavourable investment conditions. German institutions and companies ( Read more... )

Originally published at Belarus Digest. Please leave any comments there.

Scandalous news hit many media outlets this week in Germany: German police have been training their Belarusian counterparts for years.

This raised many eyebrows because of the serious human rights violations perpetrated by Belarusian security services. In addition, the German ( Read more... )

Originally published at Belarus Digest. Please leave any comments there.

As a result of the Belarus-Sweden diplomatic conflict, many media stated once again that  Belarus is now “even more isolated” than it was before. Last Tuesday, the Belarusian ambassador to Berlin, Andrei Giro, was ordered to come to the German Foreign Ministry as a reaction to ( Read more... )

Originally published at Belarus Digest. Please leave any comments there.

The argument for loosening the visa regime for Belarusian citizen is that people to people contacts must improve. At a time when the official diplomatic relations are at an all-time low, it seems that the exchange between ordinary people offers a glimpse of hope. It might ( Read more... )

Originally published at Belarus Digest. Please leave any comments there.

Although prices in Belarus are as high as in any European country, salaries are very low. The average monthly income is around USD 200, but people still manage to buy food, flats and smart phones. How is it possible to make ends meet with such a low income?

According to the ( Read more... )

Originally published at Belarus Digest. Please leave any comments there.

Last week, leading Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva announced that in Minsk there will be signposts put up in English and in Russian. This reveals several facts about contemporary Minsk. There are no signposts in English. Putting them up is so extraordinary that they publish an ( Read more... )