Belarus did not fall on its knees and beg Russia for this loan, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said while visiting the SOS Children's Village in Barawlyany near Minsk on December 30.
The Belarusian leader was commenting on a $1.5-billion loan recently given by the Russian government for 15 years at an interest rate of libor plus 0.75 percent and with five years’ deferment of repayment.
“This 1.5 billion, even two billion, was promised to us at the end of last year in connection with an increase in the price of hydrocarbon resources this year,” Mr. Lukashenka said. “We thank them for their help and we won’t be in debt to them.”
According to Mr. Lukashenka, some allege that he will repay this money with Belarus’ sovereignty. “Listen attentively my New Year’s address and you’ll understand what all is about,” he said. “Any surrender of sovereignty and any incorporation of our state into another state is out of the question. This did not happen and cannot happen at least while Lukashenka is president. I’ve been saying this every year for 12 years now. I’m the most interested man in our state being sovereign and independent.”
Mr. Lukashenka also denied that Belarus would have to repay the loan with its most liquid assets. “This is a very beneficial loan to us and we’ll repay it,” he said. “One million and a half dollars is not much for our state. And the Russian side, even at the level of experts, never suggested that we should pay with some property, plants, factories, and so on. This will never happen. We’ll honestly, openly and transparently move to sell and privatize our enterprises as was the case before.”
Established in 1995, the SOS Children's Village in Barawlyany was the first to appear in Belarus. It currently accommodates 72 parentless children (35 boys and 37 girls) living in 13 SOS families.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka on Sunday defended the government’s restrictive policy toward sole entrepreneurs.
Small business owners holding the status of sole entrepreneur will be banned from having workers other than three family members after January 1, 2008.
While talking to reporters outside Minsk, the Belarusian leader said that the government sought to create equal business conditions for sole entrepreneurs and legal entities.
“We will create absolutely equal taxation conditions,” official information sources quoted him as saying. “Everyone will pay the same amount in taxes.”
Commenting on the employee restriction, Mr. Lukashenka said, “What have we done? If you work alone, import, sell [goods] and enjoy preferences. We have even allowed them to hire close relatives. What is so bad about this? Nothing, I guess.”
Mr. Lukashenka claimed that sole entrepreneurs were involved in tax evasion schemes. “Many have started to import goods for themselves through these sole entrepreneurs who enjoy preferences. A criminal environment has appeared. But nevertheless, we have offered them a reprieve. Ok, continue as sole entrepreneurs for a while, hire relatives and enjoy preferences. You don’t like this? You will have the same conditions [that companies have] in a year,” he was quoted as saying. //BelaPAN
Alyaksandr Lukashenka, by his presidential Edict No. 685, has allowed sole entrepreneurs to register their businesses as a legal entity on easy terms until March 1, 2008.
November 10, 2007 was the deadline for sole entrepreneurs to re-register as a legal entity, namely a private unitary enterprise, on easy terms. The deadline was issued amid the government's intention to ban business owners holding the status of sole entrepreneur from hiring other than three family members starting January 1, 2008 and impose more restrictions on them later.
Of some 200,000 sole entrepreneurs, only slightly more than 10,000 registered their business as a legal entity before November 10.
The new edict is aimed to encourage more sole entrepreneurs to re-register as a legal entity on easy terms.
The edict provides for a twofold decrease in the rate of penalties imposed on private unitary enterprises to make the status more attractive for small businesses, according to the presidential press office.
The press office stressed that “the position of the government regarding the use of hired workers’ labor by sole entrepreneurs remains unchanged.”
“The issue of the edict is the continuation of the government’s work to create civilized business conditions for sole entrepreneurs and secure additional opportunities for their transformation into legal entities,” the press office said.
The government claims that it has created easier registration, accounting and taxation procedures for private unitary enterprises. //BelaPAN
Lidziya Yarmoshyna, chairperson of the central election commission, said that there had been no talks about the adoption of a Constitutional Act for the Belarusian-Russian Union State in the last few years.
«No talks about the Constitutional Act are carried out now as has been the case in the last few years,» Ms. Yarmoshyna told BelaPAN.
«All remarks about it are hypothetical. Any talks will become specific only when the central election commission is ordered to draw up referendum cost estimates. Nothing of the kind has ever happened,» she said.
Citing unnamed sources close to the Belarusian leader, Russian media outlets earlier reported that a Constitutional Act of the Belarusian-Russian Union State would be signed during Mr. Putin's trip to Minsk on December 13 and 14. The report had it that Mr. Putin will head the Union State when his term of office as president expires, whereas Mr. Lukashenka will chair the parliament of the Union State.
Neither the Kremlin not the Belarusian leader's administration confirmed the report.
Several dozens opposition activists staged a demonstration in Minsk a day ahead of the Russian leader's arrival to protest the possible move.
The Svetlahorsk District Court in the Homyel region on December 28 started trying a woman on a charge of infecting a man with HIV during sex, knowing that she had the infection.
The charge was brought against the jobless Svetlahorsk resident under Article 157 of the Criminal Code this past August following a complaint by the partner.
If found guilty, the woman may face a fine of up to 30 times the Base Rate or a prison term of up to three years.
The police say that the woman had unprotected sex with the man several times without telling him that she carried the infection. The woman earlier made a written pledge that she would not spread the infection and was warned about penalties for the offense. //BelaPAN
A police officer of the Savetski district police department in Homyel has been punished for the seizure of leaflets from Vasil Palyakow, a local opposition activist.
A disciplinary punishment was imposed on Andrey Lapukhow, the district prosecutor told Mr. Palyakow who chairs the United Civic Party`s regional organization in a letter.
The officer apprehended the opposition activist on November 10, questioned him and seized 1,500 leaflets that called on members of the House of Representatives to give an account of their activities. The politician recovered the leaflets later.
"He was punished not because he apprehended me and seized the leaflets but because he did not do it nicely, violating laws," Mr. Palyakow commented to BelaPAN. "But on the other side, people are given orders whose execution is impossible without violations of rules of procedure." //BelaPAN
The Homyel regional department of the Committee for State Security (KGB) has turned down a complaint from a local journalist against his persecution.
The department replied that KGB officers are authorized to interview people for collecting primary information.
On November 23, KGB officers arrived at the home address of Syarhey Padsasonny to bring him to the KGB department and interview about his alleged work with Warsaw-based Belsat TV channel broadcasting to Belarus.
The journalist complained about the incident to the regional prosecutor's office that redirected the complaint to the KGB.
On December 5, a KGB officer approached Mr. Padsasonny in the central park. "The officer thought that I was watching him," Mr. Padsasonny said. "He was shouting and threatening to take me to the KGB department where they would "deal with" me. I managed to attract the attention of passers-by and flee. I reported the incident to the persecutor's office as well." //BelaPAN
Alyaksandr Lukashenka on December 26 signed the 2008 state budget estimates into law, Pavel Lyohki, head of the presidential press office, told BelaPAN.
According to him, the head of state also endorsed amendments to tax regulations and the State Duty Law.
Under the 2008 budget estimates, the budget’s revenues are projected to total 50.16 trillion rubels ($23,439 million), or 44.5 percent of GDP, with VAT expected to account for 30.7 percent of the revenues. More than 20 percent of the revenues is to come from “external economic activities,” 14 percent from company profit taxes, 10.2 percent from income taxes and nearly 10 percent from excise taxes.
Budget expenditures are estimated at 52.35 trillion rubels, or 46.4 percent of GDP.
The government projects next year’s budget deficit to amount to 2.19 billion rubels, or 1.9 percent of GDP. The government plans to obtain foreign loans for financing the deficit.
Social spending would reportedly account for 60 percent of all expenditures, with the average monthly pay projected at about 700,000 rubels ($327).
The budget provides for the financing of 47 state programs, 12 more than in 2007.
The European Union has reneged on its declared commitment to freedom of movement and interpersonal contacts and also the 1975 Helsinki Final Act by raising Schengen visa fees for Belarusians to €60, Foreign Minister Syarhey Martynaw told Reuters on Thursday, according to the foreign ministry.
“For its part, Belarus has repeatedly proposed holding talks over this issue, but Brussels has unfortunately been reluctant so far,” he said. The European Union (EU) should “stop citing some formal reasons and make a bold, unbureaucratic commitment to in-depth talks.”
Unlike the EU, Belarus has even taken some unilateral steps to simplify the visa procedure for the Europeans in the recent years, he noted.
Mr. Martynaw said that Belarus does not want to use this argument as a casus belli (a Latin expression which means justification for acts of war). The Belarusian government only hopes that the EU is wise enough to spare a thought for the interests of neighboring countries, he added.
EU representatives have said on numerous occasions that unlike Ukraine, Moldova and Russia, Belarus has not signed an agreement on a simplified visa regime with the European Union, therefore its citizens have to pay €60 instead of €35 to get a Schengen visa. A precondition for signing such an agreement is full participation in the European Neighborhood Policy.
The European Union “stands ready to develop a close relationship with Belarus and its people as soon as the Belarusian government demonstrates respect for democratic values and for the basic rights of the Belarusian citizens,” the Kyiv-based Delegation of the European Commission to Belarus and Ukraine said in a statement in late November.
Nine countries joined the Schengen zone on December 21, including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
A group spearheading the commemoration of Stalinist terror victims has called on members of the public and non-governmental organizations to lay flowers at Kurapaty, a Stalin-era massacre site, on December 29.
The group wants to mark with the commemoration ceremony the anniversary of Stalin's purges that reached a peak 70 years ago.
It held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the matter.
The meeting also focused on a drive to push for the rehabilitation of Belarusian émigré poet Larysa Heniush. The group earlier approached the Prosecutor General's Office over the matter but was told that the late Belarusian poet is not entitled to rehabilitation in accordance with a 1999 decision of the Supreme Court.
Set up in November 2006, the group includes pro-opposition scholars and survivors of Stalin's purges.
31 December 2007