Rethinking this blog's purpose

[SiberianTiger]

I have decided that I will use my blog on O-F to post several selected news related to Russia and avoid making new threads on such topics at Off-topic forum. All people who pay interest are welcome to come, ask questions and comment on the news.

My first one is about ongoing heating of relations between Russia & Belarus.

http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2011/6/27/39909/

28 June 2011, Tue 18:03
Belarusian TV bashes Medvedev

Belarusian TV (BT) has severely criticized Russia and Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev.

The tone of the propaganda programme was in striking contrast with Minsk’s dependence on Moscow to overcome the deep economic crisis, Russian BBC service reports.

The Belarusian television said on Sunday evening why president Medvedev did not visit Brest on June 22, the 70th anniversary of the begging of the Great Patriotic War, and how Russian media and Russian business stand against Belarus.

Analysts in Minsk say Russia was bashed in the style earlier applied only to the West and Belarusian opposition.

On June 22, Alyaksandr Lukashenka met a sunrise in the Brest Fortress and said the Russian president offended him by not visiting the event.

The Belarusian TV claims Russia’s leading TV channels ignored the invitation to Brest, moreover, a correspondent of Channel One Russia preferred to cover silent protests against the Belarusian authorities on Minsk streets.

According to BT, war veterans in Russia live in poverty, the government cannot cope with wildfires and Russian oligarchs “have been gazing at the sweet spots of Belarusian state property in the last few years”.

Programmes criticizing Russia periodically appeared on Belarusian television last year. Russian television controlled by the Kremlin organized similar attacks on Minsk.

This demonstrates escalation of irreconcilable contradictions between the members of the “union state”, Belarusian experts think. Media experts suppose that after the “disclosure” of Russian television, Minsk will fulfill Lukashenka’s threat to set order among foreign media that cover crisis in Belarus.

“The fact that such a programme appears showed that it was a clear political order and political signal”, “Nasha Niva” newspaper runs.

Lukashenka has rarely seen Dmitry Medvedev in the last few months, but had a meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Why did Minsk begin to provoke Moscow? A number of experts think it is a sign of desperation.

The loan from EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund is too small to solve all problems of the Belarusian crisis, but Moscow does not give a bigger one offering unacceptable for Minsk conditions of privatization posing a real threat to the country’s sovereignty, economist Mikhail Zelelsky thinks.

Politologist Alyksandr Klaskouski supposes the Belarusian authorities look for any reason to give a SOS signal to the West appealing to a threat of losing sovereignty.

Libyan former foreign minister Abdurrahman Shalgam said in a recent interview to Italian Corriere della Sera that the Libyan leader planned to leave Tripoli in the nearest weeks and go to Belarus.

In this connection, Belarusian analysts recalled Lukashenka’s promise to put an end to the financial crisis in the nearest “two or three weeks” and a hint that he “will not need any loans” from July 1.

A brute force response:

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_684857.html

Jun 28, 2011
Russia to vows cut Belarus power

MOSCOW - RUSSIA will cut its power supplies to Belarus at the end of the day on Tuesday after it neighbour's failure to make a late debt payment because of its economic crisis, Russia's electricity holding company said.

The cutoff will go into effect on Tuesday at 2000 GMT, said Anton Nazarov, spokesman for the company Inter RAO UES.

'We did not get the full payment amount and will have to fully stop electricity supplies at 00:00 hours Wednesday' Moscow time, Mr Nazarov told AFP by telephone. Belarus' power supplier 'Belenergo does not have enough Russian rubles.

They send us what they have. But what they are encountering is a more systemic problem.' Russia threatened to cut off supplies to Belarus last week before extending the deadline to help its traditional ally come up with the payment.

The new deadline expired on Tuesday morning and Mr Nazarov said Russia was continuing to hold talks with Belarus.

Deliveries will be restored 'as soon as the payment is made,' the Russian company spokesman said. 'Our contacts with them are very constructive.' The Vedomosti newspaper said the dispute revolved around a 600 million ruble (S$26.4 million) payment for electricity supplies to Belarus in April.

I think it won't be easy for Lukashenko to set up a kind of Juche doctrine in a state in the middle of Europe, let alone without making a bloody mess, that would just ask for a "humanitarian intervention" from outside. His big tail is stretching too far from his foxhole, and every hunter can pull on it.

Signs of desperation are too noticeable...
http://forummsk.info/english/material/eng_news/6141355.html

"I strongly bother all experts last years, so that they search what we have. All the same it seems to me that we have oil somewhere. If there is oil - natural gas should appear somewhere. I hope".

 

[vchamp]

Yes, the economical situation in our country is critical. Some serious changes in the government must happen sooner or later.

 

[communist]

Yes, the economical situation in our country is critical. Some serious changes in the government must happen sooner or later.

same for US,anyway,

 

[SiberianTiger]

The bigger the country, the more frightening the idea of 'big changes' is. Belarus still can safely transit to way of development indistinct from most Eastern Europe's countries.