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

More than 70 thousand tourists are heading to Belarus ahead of the 2014 IIHF World Ice Hockey Championship. Many plan to take advantage of the temporary visa-free regime this May.

Though numerous wars and rebellions have resulted in the destruction of many architectural ( Read more... )

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

This week the General Congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in Tokyo may come back to the issue of 2014 Championship in Belarus. But despite an international campaign to move the Championship out of Belarus, the relocation is highly unlikely.

Given the ( Read more... )

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

Professor David Marples  the University of Alberta who was banned in April from travelling to Belarus is finishing his new book on historical memory and the World War II in Belarus.

At an Anglo-Belarusian Society event in London last week, he was speaking about the "military" ( Read more... )

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

Former Belarusian presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov and his main campaign aide Dzmitry Bandarenka have been released from prison on the eve of the Christian Orthodox Easter. It looks like the first step in the de-escalation of the worst EU-Belarus conflict in history. It ( Read more... )

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

EU travel ban against 20 Belarusian officials provoked extravagant behaviour of Belarusian authorities which analysts are still struggling to explain. On 28 February Belarus asked Polish and ambassadors to leave the country. The EU response was strong and equally unexpected: it ( Read more... )

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

As the new diplomatic war between Belarus and the European Union unfolds, Belarus may lose its right to host the World Ice Hockey Championship in 2014. Because of problems with democracy and human rights The Congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) may ( Read more... )