br23 blog - minsk, belarus

A movie about terrorists? A psychological thriller? A political commentary on US-Arab situation? Lawrence Fishburne speaking with Arabic accent and pulling a great performance? A movie that is shot in one room but never gets boring? Is that something that would interest you? Then I highly recommend you a new movie “Five Fingers” (imdb).

More than a year ago Radio Free Europe made a public announcement that RFE/RL headquarters are to be moved from Prague’s center to a different location, away from the Old Town. And recently Czech government announced that they are giving a gift of one million dollars to the radio to be spent on the relocation […]

Today, I started listening to a 6-hour long mp3 recording with the audio book Bill Clinton. My Life read by the author himself. It totally absorbed my attention. No matter what some Americans say, Clinton is an amazing personality, a brilliant politician (notwithstanding some problems), a really smart man. Such a striking contrast to the […]

• Harrison Ford was born in Chicago, Illinois to Dorothy Nidelman (born Dora Nidelman on October 17, 1917 in New Jersey), a former radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford on November 20, 1906 in New York; died February 10, 1999), an advertising executive and a former actor. Ford’s maternal grandparents, Harry Nidelman […]

U.S. Department of State actually became interactive in 2006. You can ask them all kinds of questions online. On Monday, April 3, Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary, chief of European and Eurasian Affairs, will discuss the recent elections in Belarus and Ukraine. You can send your questions now.
I’ve sent this:
Dear Ambassador Fried:
The main reveleation, the main […]

• radioopensource.org/belarus-more-soviet-than-the-russians
Last night I took part in a talk show on Radio Open Source. That was my first radio appearance in a foreign language (English). I sort of hate my East Slavic accent, but I’ve always been too lazy to work on phonetics. Well, I hope people could understand what I was saying. (mp3)
Doctor […]

Finally, Belarus made it to the top news on CNN International, both on TV and on their website Belarus elections and protesters on October square in Minsk were their #1 top news for several hours this morning.
Here are the screen shots:

CNN did a great job. This looked so good on TV. And the anchor’s text […]

Today, the U.S. president George W. Bush filed a special report to U.S. Congress detailing personal fortune and income of the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenka. [1]. Bush was obliged to do it within the stipulations of the Belarus Democracy Act. It seems like a perfect timing from the White House to do this.
I’ve […]

As I wrote several days ago, KGB arrested four NGO activists from “Partnerstva”, making ludicrous accusations that these peaceful observers were planning a military coup d’etat. Today, Madeleine Albright (whom I had a pleasure to meet in Prague two years ago) made a rather strong statement, demanding immediate release of the “Partnerstva” activists.
Madeleine Albright: “The […]

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Feb.27.2006 — At a White House meeting today, two wives of disappeared public figures in Belarus obtained assurances from President George Bush of continued support for human rights in Belarus. “We are pleased that the President made himself personally available to demonstrate his deep concern […]