Page 7 - BELRptSept18

Earlier, Belarus expected to obtain a new tranche from the EFSD by late May following a $200mn tranche allocated by the institution in October.
A two-front war
The new conflict with Russia has erupted against a background of an unprecedented crackdown by the Belarusian authorities against the nation's independent media. Over the past week, more than 10 local journalists and Minsk-based reporters with German's Deutsche Welle were briefly detained, their offices and homes raided by law enforcements.
According to the country's main law enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, journalists are suspected of the unauthorised use of BELTA’s behind the pay-wall information, which had allegedly “caused damage to the news agency” and "undermined its business reputation". Among the publications targeted were commercially orientated real estate titles and it is not clear what the authorities motives are.
Minsk's actions could lead to deterioration of its relations with the European Union (EU) and US. Specifically, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini said that the detentions of journalists are in "contradiction with Belarus’ stated policy of democratisation and its international commitments".
"The EU is committed to a stable, democratic and prosperous future for Belarus, for the benefit of its people, and will continue its work with all the stakeholders with this objective firmly in mind, Mogherini added. "In this context, continued support for independent media will remain essential."
On August 9, the US embassy in Minsk urged the government of Belarus "to keep its international commitments by respecting fundamental rights and freedoms, including freedom of expression and of media."
"The United States will continue to closely monitor this situation and joins calls for the government of Belarus to immediately release all journalists to guarantee the rights of citizens to free speech and media freedom," the embassy’s statement reads.
The EU, US and international human rights organisations are unhappy about the current mass detention of journalists in Belarus, which followed three years of "normalisation" in relations with Minsk. However, local experts question the fact that the Belarusian leadership was ready for real improvements in relations due to the fact that the West can't offer anything comparable to Russia's financial support and subsidies.
9.2.7 Politics - misc
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was forced to reshuffle the nation's government in August due to the fact that some senior officials “drank a lot ”, which is “unacceptable,” he said on August 31. "I want to publicly say that heavy drinking is unacceptable," Lukashenko's media office quoted him as saying. "I was ashamed to say that many [government] officials whom I have recently dismissed drank a lot." The president added that the recent reshuffle "is not the end". "We will come back to many government officials who do not show results or do now work in accordance with my principles," Lukashenko underlined. The statement followed the change of the nation's prime minister, four deputies and a number of ministers on August 18 in a move, which Lukashenko explained by attempts of the government to implement unpopular economic reforms including reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
7 BELARUS Country Report September 2018 www.intellinews.com