Georgia considers Medvedev’s visit to South Osetia as a symbolic provocation, report Russian news sources. During the last parliamentary session, the speaker of the Georgian Parliament said that the visit was: ” A Russian answer to the United States of America and Europe for their support of the Georgian sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

US Charge d’Affaires Jonathan Moore said to the Charter’97 press center that there’s no formal decision on shutting the embassy in Minsk. According to the diplomat, Washington is continuing to consider the situation about the American diplomats in Belarus. The Associated Press reported 1 May the US Department of State had ordered Belarus to close [...]

Hello world. I apologize for not posting any articles in a while. And so I thought that it would be good to re-start posting with some interesting material on global energy, security and geopolitics that greatly influence many important decisions in our rather turbulent times. Not long ago, on April 15, 2008, the Center for [...]

An interesting comments made by Andrei Sannikov,a member of the organising committee of the civil campaign “European Belarus”, appeared on the web(Charter97.org). And I think they are worth of your time as he goes over some important issues facing Belarus and its political direction. “Alyaksandr Lukashenka is consciously set to break relations with the US, [...]

Not long ago we wrote about a documentary movie ‘Lessons of Belarusian Language”. Back then, it was unavailable to viewers; however, thanks to comments from our readers we are happy to write that this movie is available on line! below is a recap of a blog and the movie itself. Radio Svaboda reports that First [...]

Couple years ago we publish two photo/video clips dedicated to Belarusian opposition movement. By no stretch of imagination we pretended to be big time movie directors, however, it was our take on the situation. However, judging by the comments, our modest video attempt was well received and many expressed interest to learn more about Belarus, [...]

Some things never change and these videos fully demonstrate it. Every single protest or opposition rally in Minsk ends up with news about police brutality. And this year is no different…

So, you want to graduate from a college in Uzbekistan? First, pass “Karimov Studies” class! Academic freedom issues The government limited academic freedom. Authorities often required department head approval for university lectures or lecture notes. Although authorities implemented the requirement inconsistently, university professors generally practiced self-censorship. Numerous university students reported that universities taught mandatory courses [...]

Academic freedom issues There were no reported government restrictions on academic freedom and cultural events.I find it hard to believe that there are no restrictions. Considering that Tajikistan is an isolated country without any international monitor groups or truly independent media it would be safe to assume that if there are any incidents they simply [...]

Here is an interesting twist, apparently, former President Niyazov’s poetry works are still necessary to learn in order to graduate in Turkmenistan. I am suprised that President Lukashenko didn’t follow the trend…yet. Academic freedom issues No master’s degrees or doctorates have been granted in the country since 1998. Government permission was required to study abroad [...]