Author: Grigory Ioffe/Eurasia Daily Monitor

Musings of two Belarusian historians, Yury Shevtsov and Alexander Bely, symbolize the current condition of Belarusians’ cultural divide. Both consider the 1596 emergence of the Uniate Church, preserving the Eastern rite and discipline but submitting to papal authority, an important hallmark in Belarusian history. Yet, they draw contrasting conclusions from it. While for Mr. Shevtsov,...

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Luka­shenka annually convenes a meeting devoted to the major tasks of the state border service. During the latest such meeting, on January 24, he unexpectedly responded to Zenon Poznyak’s assertion that Belarus was being militarily occupied by Russia (Pool Pervogo, January 24). The founder of the Belarusian Popular Front, Mr. Poznyak (also...

On January 28, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka delivered his state of the country address to the Belarusian parliament (YouTube, January 28). This is an annual event, though in 2021 he skipped it altogether. This last speech lasted 2 hours and 36 minutes; in addition, Mr. Lukashenka spent an hour responding to questions. Each theme of the...