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next two years , Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Oleg Kravchenko said on March 28. "There are always practical matters that both sides have to deal with, maybe the American side even more than we do because they have a rather lengthy bureaucratic process. But we are on the way to it. I think the issue may be resolved within a year or two," Belarusian state news agency BELTA quoted Kravchenko as saying. He added that the time depends not on whether the countries fail to come to terms on some matters but on technical procedures, which may take a lot of time. In 2018, the Belarusian authorities ordered to reduce US diplomatic staff in Belarus from 35 to five. The move followed US sanctions against state-owned petrochemical conglomerate Belneftekhim, imposed for human rights violations in the country. Minsk, in turn, recalled its ambassador from Washington the same year, recommending that then US ambassador Karen Stewart leave Belarus for consultations.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has fired Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Rusy and Minister of Agriculture and Food Leonid Zayats , the presidential media office said in a statement on March 28. The move followed Lukashenko's visit to dairy farms in the Mogilev region, where "the situation on the ground was just as deplorable, which is attributed to mismanagement", according to local state media. The region's governor Vladimir Domanevsky was also sacked by the president, according to the statement. Lukashenko also ordered to open criminal proceedings against those officials who responsible for the poor business environment and improper labour discipline, according to BELTA news agency. In August 2018, Lukashenko reshuffled the nation's government in August due to the fact that some senior officials "drank a lot", which is "unacceptable". "You should know when to stop [to drink]," Lukashenka added, appealing to a new cabinet at the time. "You should know with whom, where and how much to drink. If you lose this feeling, you are no longer an official. This is the reason why we will have to say goodbye to certain people soon." The president fired the nation's prime minister, four deputies and a number of ministers. Authoritarian Lukashenko also accused the previous cabinet of an tempt to implement unpopular economic reforms, including reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Later, Lukashenko appointed Sergei Rumas, head of the nation's state development agency, the Development Bank of Belarus, a new premier instead of Andrei Kobiakov. According to the state statistical committee Belstat, the country's agricultural output fell by 3.4% year-on-year in 2018. However, the Belarusian government is going to harvest at least 8.5mn tonnes of grain this year versus around 6.2mn tonnes in 2018 and 8mn tonnes in 2017.
Belarus did well in the annual survey on the rule of law. Nearly all the countries of Eastern Europe made progress in improving the rule of law in 2018, according to the World Justice Project annual ranking “ Rule of law index 2019 ” but drilling into the subfactors and big disparities persist.
The top performer from the 13 countries surveyed in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region was the progressive small republic of Georgia that keep its score unchanged at 0.61 and remained ranked at 41 place overall out of 126 counties surveyed.
8 BELARUS Country Report April 2019 www.intellinews.com