br23 blog - minsk, belarus

Slutsk (Słucak) is a town where the biggest anti-Russian, anti-Soviet uprising took place in 1918. But if you go there now, you wouldn’t find a single mention of that. Slutsk is an old town, first mentioned in 1116, and in 1160 it became the capital of its own principality. In the 17th century the town […]

Today’s New York Times carries an article about Alexander Milinkevich and our presidential “elections” that will take place in just 20 days. An American journalist Steven Lee Myers made a pretty good overview of the current political situation in the country. It’s a highly recommended reading for anybody who’s interested:
On March 19, Aleksandr Milinkevich will […]

There’s a great blog about Belarus by Tobias Ljungvall from Stockholm, Sweden. Unfortunately, it’s only updated once per week, but otherwise it’s excellent. The latest entry in his blog attracted, quite unexpectedly, a flood of comments from a pro-Lukashenka, anti-Western anonymous surfer. To get a taste of what kind of propaganda people in Belarus […]

Russian journalist: There’s a widespread (sic!) opinion that in the 21st century Russia will start collecting its “own” former territories. What do you think about that?
Sergei Lukyanenko: First of all, I would not put quotation marks around the word “own”! And I would not call them “former”, but “temporarily lost.” Yes, Russia will start getting […]

It’s not only Warsaw or Stockholm. Last week a dozen Belarusians staged a protest in front of the Belarus’ embassy in Washington, DC. They were joined by a Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (MI-R). An acquiantance sent me a few photos from the protest:

[photo #1] [photo #2] [photo #3]
The British “Times” published a nice article about it:
“It […]

The poster says in Polish: “For new Belarus! Spring 2006. Solidarity of Europe is living in the hearts of the Belarusian people.”
Belarusians in Poland staged a small protest in front of the Belarus’ embassy in Warsaw, today. Before demonstrating in front of the Belarus embassy they delivered petitions to some of the Western European embassies […]

The Countdown has begun:
On 6 March 2006, the Amnesty International Hitch-Hiking Contest is starting in Amsterdam. The activists and supporters of Amnesty International will hitch-hike across the Netherlands, Germany and Poland until to the Belarusian border.

Only several days ago I ordered multivitamins with resveratrol from an online drugstore, and today I opened the new issue of “Scientific American” and saw this article:
• Unlocking the Secrets of Longevity Genes
I have a gut feeling it’ll become a huge thing in the upcoming years all over the world. And resveratrol (which I keep […]

Soviet-era aircraft carrier goes under the hammer and sickle in China (photos)
When I was a teenager this was my favorite aircraft career, together with its twin brother “Kiev”. And I was so happy that Chinese managed to put it to good use by launching a superb military theme park. But now…

Time is ticking away. Today it’s exactly one month before Belarus’ “elections”, and I wish I could cover presidential campaign in more detail, but sometimes I’m just too busy, too lazy or too tired to write anything about it (this blog being a personal hobby project). But it’s great to know that there’s someone […]