Visa-free regime to Belarus can be expanded next year

         In the end of this year the Belarusian government will analyze the effects of the five days visa-free regime for the citizens of 80 states. It was implemented last February. There are aspirations to expand the visa-free visit till 10 or 30 days. Current visa-free regime applies only to the visitors who arrive to the Minsk International Airport. In the future plans there might be an option of land border crossing. Most probably next year there will be possible to visit Belarus without visa for 10 days. For the citizens of China it could be expanded up to 30 days.

Visa free travel to Belarus

             For those who is willing to visit Belarus without visa there is a three ways of doing it. The first option is a five days visa free visit if you travel to the International airport in Minsk. If you choose this way of visiting, you can travel all around Belarus not more than five days. The second option is the three days visa free trip to Grodno and the Augustów Canal by crossing the Polish-Belarusian border by car or by bus. Unfortunately, if you want to go by train, you need to have a valid visa. The third option is to make three days visa free visit to Bialowieza Forest crossing the border by foot or by bike. The last two options require a prior to visit registration and a hotel booking.

Explosion in St.Petersburg and the memory of Ryazan's sugar

              The explosion in the subway that happened in St. Petersburg yesterday could be called as “foreseeable” by someone. In the Internet people speculate on the planned attack by the Russian authorities. The memories of “Ryazan’s sugar” are still vivid in people’s minds[1] The horrible explosions of the living buildings in Russia in 1999 came as a shock and brought the war in Chechnya. Nowadays, in the time of the economical crisis, protests of those who are not happy with the level of corruption in Russia, people who are not supporting the wars in Ukraine and Syria, it is a hard to find a common solution. And now there is a big reason to stop complaining about the bad economy and start to fight the world terrorism with multiplied energy. Heroes can occur only in critical moments. And this is the great moment for Putin to save the nation again, by guarantying them security and promising a revenge.

[1] Russian FSS was cracked while preparing the explosion in the living house in Ryasan in 1999. There were bags of the hexogen found in the basement that later on was identified by FSS as a "sugar: and the explosion preparation as a "training"…After this incident the explosions of the living buildings in Russia stopped.

Belarusian Freedom Day: violation of human rights and freedoms again

            On the 25th of March Belarusians celebrate the day of the creation of Belarusian People’s Republic (Dzien Voli) in 1918. For many years of Lukashenko’s regime Belarusians were protesting peacefully to commemorate this important day in the history. This year the social protests against the tax for unemployed occurred before Dzien Voli. Those protests were crowded and occurred mainly in the regions where the unemployment rate has been dramatically increasing. Authorities got scared that it could be a massive gathering of people in the capital, therefore it performed the preventive arrests of leaders of opposition, journalists and activists. More than 300 people were detained before March 25: police entered their homes taking away people and confiscating their belongings. Much more people were arrested on March 25. All together there have been more than 1000 people detained. People were caught on the way to the protest, pushed to the  vehicles and taken away, beaten up. 

             If the social protesters merged with political protesters, it would be hard to stop such quantity of people. And the authorities know that.

(c) Radio Svaboda

"Givi" killed, another death of well known separatist in Eastern Ukraine

             Today the commander of one of the battalion of the self-proclaimed  Donetsk People's Republic was killed. Mikhail Tolstych was known as “Givi”. This is not the first death of high rank separatists well known from Russian media. In October last year famous separatist named “Motorola” was killed. It cannot come as a surprise to the people serving to the war in Eastern Ukraine. If you are take part in the invasion to the sovereign state, you are the reason of exodus of residents from the territory and you are damaging many lives and destinies, you cannot believe that your life will end up peacefully. 

Georgian pass to EU: "We don't need no thought control"

     Georgian aspire to travel to the Schengen zone without a visa will soon come true. This week the majority of the European Parliament voted for visa-free regime for Georgian citizenship. The procedure still requires some technical realizations. In case of increase of migration or asylum seekers from Georgia, EU will be able to suspend the visa-free travel. The regime is designed for travelling, visiting and business purposes trip but not working on the territory of Schengen. Ukraine is going through similar procedure of EU visa liberalization. However, the war in Eastern Ukraine brings the case on another level of consideration and procedures.  

The Union State of Russia and Belarus: time to separate?

              Russia has established a border area with its partner of the Union – Belarus. Allegedly it has to do with the “necessary security of the boarder control of the Russian Federation”.  However, it is not the first time when Russia makes steps that show that not everything is smooth and harmonized in this Union. Last year Russian government have forbidden a transit of foreign passengers to Russia via Belarus. Also Belarusian citizens’ passports are being checked in the Russian airports that was not a case before. Belarus pays these costs for being not obedient to Russia. If you want be a master, you have to take care of you dependant, if you do not have resources, be ready that a dependant will look for another master.