The first Belarusian expedition includes deputy of the lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament Nikolai Dubovik and sector chief of the Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences Vladimir Tyshkevich. During the seeing off ceremony chairman of the Chamber of Representatives Vladimir Konoplev noted a special importance of “the research in Antarctica given the climate change”. The speaker handed the polar researchers Belarusian flag which they will raise at the South Pole....

At a sitting on February 8 the central election commission /CEC/ will determine the order of using the state mass media in preparing for the presidential elections, CEC chair Lydia Yermoshina has told BelTA. The Election Code of Belarus envisages the right for the election campaign. It stipulates that candidates for the presidency can use radio and TV free air time to deliver their speeches and also can publish their programs, Lydia Yermoshina has reminded. “All state central newspapers...

Chairman of the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus Viktor Kamenkov has reported to the Belarusian president today on the performance of economic courts of the republic. Administering justice in the sphere of private business, economic courts play an important role in strengthening economic relations, revitalizing the country’s economy and improving the legislation. The administration of justice in the economic sphere secures legal rights of all-type business entities and interests of the...

By 2010 Belarus is set to build up gold and foreign currency reserves up to USD 3 billion, or 2,5 times, chairman of the board of the National Bank Piotr Prokopovich has told reporters today. The target is ensured in the draft guidelines of the monetary policy of Belarus for 2006-2010. “Today we are working intensively on the program and are set to pass it this April”, Piotr Prokopovich said. To date the gold and foreign currency reserves amount to about USD 1,3 billion. In 2006 they...

If the presidential elections took place today in Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko would win an overwhelming majority of votes. According to the sociological poll conducted by the institute of social and political studies under the presidential administration of the Republic of Belarus, 76.7 per cent of the respondents stated they would vote for the incumbent head of state. About 2 per cent would vote for other contenders. The results of the poll attest that the majority of the population...

On January 31 president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko met with chief of the oil company RussNeft Mikhail Gutsiriev. As BelTA has been told in the head of state’s press service, the sides confirmed the interest to develop mutually beneficial cooperation and set out the prospects of further interaction. The Belarusian leader noted the importance of the growth of the company which is an integrated oil holding company actively acquiring new oilfields and refinery assets. During the...

The central election commission of the Republic of Belarus has accredited 30 CIS international observers. As of January 31, 2006 some 8 more applications were under consideration, BelTA has been told in the CIS observation mission headquarters. Long-term observers are representatives of Armenia, Russia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The documents from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the CIS Economic Court are expected to arrive soon. The CIS observation mission has started monitoring the election...

To date some 4 competitors have collected the necessary amount of signatures in favor of nomination as candidates for the presidency, secretary of the central election commission /CEC/ Nikolai Lozovik has told at today’s press conference. The CEC secretary has provided specified information on the number of collected signatures. Alexander Lukashenko’s initiative group presented some 1,905,637 million signatures in favor of his nomination as a candidate for the presidency. The...

Belarus will render assistance in building the second line of the Yamal-Europe gas main across the territory of the republic, first vice-premier Vladimir Semashko told BelTA. According to him, Belarus is a unique partner for Gazprom. Today the first line of the Yamal-Europe gas main is almost finished. Two compressor stations are left to be introduced in 2006 and the main will work at ultimate capacity of 34 billion cubic meters of natural gas per annum. “We have created the appropriate...

Belarus will increase the supplies of the Russian coal from 300 thousand tons in 2006 to one million tons in 2020, the Belarus-Russia energy budget until 2020 runs. First vice-premier Vladimir Semashko has reported that according to an analysis, oil and gas prices are expected to equalize with those for coal which yet is more costly than the two mentioned above. Some stations in Belarus will run on coal. According to estimates, all oil deposits in the world will be depleted in 50 years,...