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FM AMEMBASSY MINSK
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INFO RUCNOSC/ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY COOPERATION IN EUROPE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MINSK 001226 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ECON BO
SUBJECT: EMBASSY MINSK WEEKLY POL/ECON REPORT - NOVEMBER 24, 
2006 
 
MINSK 00001226  001.6 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  The following are brief items of interest compiled by 
Embassy Minsk. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
LUKASHENKO PRESS CONFERENCE 
--------------------------- 
 
- Lukashenko Admits GOB Falsified Presidential Vote (para. 2) 
- Lukashenko Explains Reasons for "Last Dictator" (para. 3) 
 
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 
----------------------- 
 
- Saddam Hussein Helped Fund National Library in Minsk (para. 4) 
- CIS Defense and Foreign Ministers Meet (para. 5) 
 
CIVIL SOCIETY 
------------- 
 
- Belarus Opposition Leader Detained for Two Hours (para. 6) 
- Border Officials Convicted of Bribery (para. 7) 
- Date Set for Dashkevich's Sentence Appeal Hearing (para. 8) 
 
TRADE AND INVESTMENT 
-------------------- 
 
- Belarus' Trade With Russia up 30.7 percent (para. 9) 
 
DOMESTIC ECONOMICS 
------------------ 
 
- Monetary Policy to Hold Inflation Below Eight Percent (para. 
10) 
- Unemployment in Belarus Down 25.2 Percent (para. 11) 
 
SOCIETY 
------- 
 
- Vandals Deface Signboard of Protestant Community (para. 12) 
 
- QUOTE OF THE WEEK (para. 13) 
 
--------------------------- 
LUKASHENKO PRESS CONFERENCE 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Lukashenko Admits GOB Falsified Presidential Vote 
 
On November 23, independent media reported that President 
Lukashenko revealed that March's presidential election had been 
rigged, claiming that he had won many more votes than the 
election authorities announced.  Lukashenko stated that the 
election authorities falsified the election because as much as 
93.5 percent of the voters had voted for him and the West would 
not recognize the election unless the President won by "European 
figures." 
 
¶3.  Lukashenko Explains Reasons for "Last Dictator" 
 
On November 23, independent media reported President Lukashenko 
explaining why he had been branded "the last dictator in Europe." 
Lukashenko claimed that some people could not handle Belarus 
doing so well because they were rivals.  The West's imperialist 
ambitions are causing them to spend hundreds of millions of 
dollars on revolutions that have all failed.  Lukashenko figures 
this makes them bitter. 
 
----------------------- 
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 
----------------------- 
 
¶4.   Saddam Hussein Helped Fund National Library in Minsk 
 
On November 23, President Lukashenko told Ukrainian reporters 
that the former president of Iraq had provided USD 500,000 of his 
own money for the construction of the new building for Belarus' 
National Library.  While the library was built with entirely 
Belarusian labor, Lukashenko stressed, everyone, including Saddam 
Hussein, funded the project. 
 
¶5.   CIS Defense and Foreign Ministers Meet 
On November 23, the Council of Defense Ministers of the 
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Council of 
Defense Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) 
met in Brest.  Press reported the ministers discussed topics such 
as joint personnel training, united communications systems, and 
the integrated air defense system.  The ministers agreed to 
establish a system of control over the CSTO's collective security 
forces and facilities.  On November 27, the Council of Foreign 
 
MINSK 00001226  002.5 OF 003 
 
 
Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) 
convened a session in Minsk.  Representatives from the 12 CIS 
member countries heard a report on ways to increase the 
efficiency of CIS' activities and decided to set up an interstate 
commission of deputy foreign ministers to continue studying the 
CIS' operation and generate proposals for reform.  The Ministers 
also discussed draft agreements on the basic principles of 
cooperation in the field of migration and the Anti-Terrorist 
Center. 
 
------------- 
CIVIL SOCIETY 
------------- 
 
¶6.  Opposition Leader Detained in Fatal Car Accident Case 
 
On November 24, independent media reported that opposition leader 
and former presidential candidate Aleksandr Milinkevich had been 
detained over his alleged involvement in a fatal car accident. 
Police claimed that his car resembled the one that had fled the 
scene of a previous accident in which one person had died. 
Milinkevich's press secretary told post that the detention 
occurred in the northern region of Vitebsk. 
 
¶7.   Border Officials Convicted of Bribery 
 
On November 21, nearly 50 former border guards and customs 
officers were sent to prison for bribery, according to the 
Belarusian Military Prosecutor's Office.  The Belarusian Military 
Court sentenced a border control unit's former head and 13 
servicemen, five officers of the Oshmyany Customhouse and two 
civilians to between five and 14 years in prison for accepting 
bribes to let trucks cross the Lithuanian border into Belarus 
without paying import duties.  The Kotlovka checkpoint had 27 
inspection officers who were also given prison terms varying 
between six and a half and seven years for allowing some 600 
trucks carrying food, household appliances and other goods to 
cross the border without paying duties between 2002 and 2004. 
 
¶8.  Date Set for Dashkevich's Sentence Appeal Hearing 
 
On November 23, independent media reported that on December 15 a 
Minsk City Court judge is scheduled to examine an appeal from the 
defense team of imprisoned Dmitriy (Zmitser) Dashkevich, age 25, 
against his conviction and jailing.  Dashkevich was sentenced to 
18 months in a minimum-security correctional institution on 
November 1 after having been found guilty of running an 
unregistered organization (Malady Front). 
 
-------------------- 
TRADE AND INVESTMENT 
-------------------- 
 
¶9.  Belarus' Trade with Russia up 30.7 percent 
 
On November 22, the Economics Ministry reported that Belarus' 
trade with Russia rose by 30.7 percent compared with last year. 
Belarus' exports so far this year totaled USD 4.9 billion and 
imports USD 9.8 billion.  Russia accounts for 87.4 percent of 
Belarus' trade with the Commonwealth of Independent States, which 
experienced a 30.4 percent increase to USD 16.9 billion.  Belarus 
boosted trade with Kazakhstan by 60.4 percent to USD 237.1 
million.  Belarus' trade with Moldova rose by 5.6 percent to USD 
125.1 million, with exports exceeding imports by USD 13.7 
million.  Trade with Ukraine totaled USD 1.7 billion so far in 
2006, a 28.5-percent rise, with an export surplus of USD 2.7 
million. 
 
---------------- 
DOMESTIC ECONOMY 
---------------- 
 
¶10.  Monetary Policy to Hold Inflation Below Eight Percent 
 
On November 21 Pyotr Prokopovich, head of the National Bank of 
Belarus, promised President Lukashenko that the country's 2007 
monetary policy will be aimed at decelerating inflation and 
stabilizing the national currency's exchange rate.  According to 
Prokopovich, the inflation rate should not exceed eight percent 
by the end of 2007.  He added that the National Bank's Base 
Refinance Rate is expected to be lowered to seven to nine 
percent, which will help reduce an average interest rate on loans 
to 10 to 12 percent. 
 
¶11.  Unemployment in Belarus Down 25.2 percent 
 
On November 22, the Ministry of Statistics and Analysis reported 
that the number of officially registered unemployed people in 
Belarus decreased 25.2 percent compared to last year's numbers. 
The Ministry has registered 53,000 unemployed as of the end of 
 
MINSK 00001226  003.6 OF 003 
 
 
this past October, which put the official unemployment rate at 
1.2 percent of the economically active population.  The highest 
reported unemployment rates were in the Vitebsk, Brest and 
Mogilyov regions (1.5 percent), compared with the lowest rate of 
0.5 percent in Minsk.  Women account for 66 percent of the 
unemployed people; under 30 years old made up 45 percent of those 
out of work. 
 
------- 
SOCIETY 
------- 
 
¶12.  Vandals Deface Signboard of Protestant Community 
 
Independent media reported on the night of November 20, that 
unidentified vandals painted "Don't Believe Sects!" on a 
billboard in Baranovichi that directed people to the Salvation 
Church, an affiliate of the Union of Evangelical Faith Christians 
in the Republic of Belarus.  Officials and media expressed the 
opinion that drunken teenagers might be the vandals.  The church 
claimed that this was an organized action. 
 
----------------- 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK 
----------------- 
 
¶13.  On November 23, President Lukashenko said he had deserved 
the nickname "batka" (father in Belarusian) because he conducted 
a policy different from the one that would be pursued by "a small 
intellectual coming from an intellectual family where the table 
is set with tableware, with forks and spoons at their places, 
etc.  I did not learn this anywhere.  I came and started ruling 
the country the way I could.  Maybe there's something good in 
this 'dictatorship.'  I'm putting the word in quotation marks. 
We know many dictatorships where people are eaten and abducted in 
the street, there's nothing of the kind in our country." 
 
Stewart