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

Over the past 20 years, Belarusian teams have achieved tremendous success in kick boxing and Muay Thai boxing, becoming some of the strongest in the world.

Martial arts' beginnings in Belarus go back to the late 1980s. During the Soviet era, some types of martial arts were ( Read more... )

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

As a member of the Board of Governors of the European Humanities University and a member of the current search committee, I read with interest but also distinct concern Mr. Kharytonau’s recent article “EHU Rector Selection: Time to Fix Mistakes and Improve Credibility.”

I ( Read more... )

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

On March 3, in Moscow, Russian president Vladimir Putin presented his Belarusian counterpart Aliaksandr Lukashenka with the Order of Aleksandr Nevsky award. Ostensibly it marked his work in international cooperation in the service of the Russian Federation, linked perhaps to ( Read more... )

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

In February 2015 following the negotiations in Minsk the President of Belarus said he was not planning to “turn to the West.” He explained, “You and I are Russian people... we have shared history. We have shared opinions.”

According to the recently released World Value Survey ( ( Read more... )

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

Belarus is reeling from the effects of the wobbling oil price and Western-imposed sanctions on Russia.

The economy is now paying for the absence of liberal reforms through a decrease in manufacturing, the depreciation of the national currency and the need for budget cuts. The ( Read more... )

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

On 23 February Belarus and other post-Soviet countries celebrated the Day of Defenders of the Fatherland and the Day of Armed Forces. A minute of silence commemorates those who died defending their country.

Siarhej Leskiec visited the defenders of Belarus’s border with ( Read more... )

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

Fears that a call for mobilisation was on the horizon sent the public into a panic in Belarus, though the concerns were largely unfounded.

The Belarusian military and industrial complex is planning for the future and hopes on orders from Russia, though it remains unclear ( Read more... )

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

EU foreign policy towards Belarus, who pays for journalism, the new martial law and Western assistance to Belarus are among the topics which kept Belarusian analysts busy recently.

Foreign Policy

Rethinking the EU Policies Towards Belarus - Andrei Liakhovich, the Director of ( Read more... )

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

At the end of January, Belarus temporally mobilised nearly 15,000 reservists - a large number for the nearly 50,000-strong national army.

A major Russian news portal Gazeta.ru linked this move to the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict. At the same time, the Belarusian army ( Read more... )

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