The Belarusian Potash Company (BPC) is still interested in Russia’s Silvinit becoming a stockholder, BPC Director General Uladzimir Nikalayenka said at a news conference held in Minsk on January 31.
The BPC is currently controlled by Belarus' Salihorsk-based Belaruskaly and Russia's Uralkaly, with both holding 50 percent.
“We would not like to compete with Russian companies in the potash market, that is why we offered Silvinit to join the BPC on equal terms with everyone,” Mr. Nikalayenka said. However, he noted, Silvinit began demanding that the chair of the Supervisory Board should change “on a rotational basis every year.”
Under the BPC charter, this position may only be occupied by a representative of Uralkaly. The position of director general has been reserved for a representative of Belaruskaly, whereas the company’s financial flows are to be managed by the chief accountants, finance directors and economy directors of all stockholders.
“The door is open to Silvinit today,” Mr. Nikalayenka said, adding that there had been no response from Silvinit for a year. The BPC last made the above-mentioned offer eight or nine months ago, he noted.
While meeting with visiting Silvinit Director General Pyotr Kondrashov two years ago, Alyaksandr Lukashenka invited Silvinit to get involved in the Belarusian Potash Company to jointly sell potash fertilizers on the world market. “We will be the strongest and most powerful company that will set to a great degree the rules of the game in the world's potash fertilizer market, which means billions of dollars,” the Belarusian leader said.
If Silvinit joins the alliance of Belaruskaly and Uralkaly, the BPC's share in the world's exports would exceed 50 percent.
Silvinit is one of the largest potash fertilizer producers in Russia. The world’s second-largest Verkhnekamsk deposit of potassium and magnesium salts that Silvinit mines contains an estimated 3,800,000 tons of ore.
The Belarusian Potash Company is said to control more than 30 percent of the world’s potash fertilizer market. It supplies fertilizers to Africa, Europe, India, China, the United States, the Pacific region, and Central and South America. The BPC has offices in Beijing, New Delhi, Singapore, San Paolo and Chicago. //BelaPAN
The Political Council of United Pro-democratic Forces plans to adopt a single list of nominees for this fall’s parliamentary elections on February 9, Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party, told BelaPAN.
The list will include individuals nominated by regional coalitions, he said.
“We have nominees in 63 of the country’s 110 electoral districts,” Mr. Lyabedzka said. “I hope that the number of nominees on the list will increase by February 9.”
The adoption of the list will show that the pro-democratic forces have passed the stage of difficult negotiations,” Mr. Lyabedzka said.
According to him, the list had to be finalized on Wednesday, but the deadline had to be postponed because of last-minute applications from some individuals and organizations eager to get on the list. “During the Congress of Pro-democratic Forces last May, they were among those who called for boycotting the elections or unveiling the list shortly before the vote,” the politician said.
Negotiations in Minsk and Homyel were the most successful, whereas in Mahilyow, “people don’t want to reach an agreement,” Mr. Lyabedzka said, adding that a consensus had been reached on nominees for half of the electoral districts in the other regions.
“Our list is an alternative to the government’s list of nominess,” Mr. Lyabedzka said. “The authorities will certainly try to create a semblance of alternative by fielding members of the Belarusian National Youth Union, the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus. I guess that some opponents of the government may prefer to run independently.”
The justice ministry has requested the Supreme Court to suspend its closure suit against the Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC), Valery Ukhnalyow, deputy chairman of the opposition party, told BelaPAN.
Representatives of the ministry and the BPC met in the Supreme Court on January 30 to discuss the case. The party’s leaders presented 1,200-page materials proving allegedly that defects cited earlier by the ministry had been remedied.
“The justice ministry decided to study our report and filed a request for the suspension of the suit in connection with this,” Mr. Ukhnalyow said. “We raised no objections.”
The party’s six-month suspension, which was ordered by the ministry, expires on February 2. “Our party plans to resume its full-scale activities afterward and catch up with all events that took place in this period,” the activist said, adding that the BPC would be preparing for this year’s parliamentary elections.
The ministry filed the closure suit against the party on January 4.
The ministry said that the BPC had been actively involved in political and international activities after its suspension in August 2007.
It insisted that the party had collected signatures, organized picketing and was among the organizers of the opposition’s European March staged in Minsk in October. The ministry said with reference to Internet news sources that on August 30, the BPC, together with other opposition parties, had signed an agreement on the principles of participation in Belarus’ 2008 parliamentary elections and proposed its potential candidates.
In addition, the ministry said, the party participated in conferences and workshops abroad, established new chapters and conducted other activities not relating to the elimination of the flaws that were the grounds for the suspension of the party.
Opposition youths are reported to have beaten up by police in Salihorsk, Minsk region, on Wednesday over a demonstration staged in protest against increasing crackdown on sole entrepreneurs.
Around 60 people arrived at the city executive committee on that day. They lined up and stood for a while holding lightened candles.
The demonstration also was in support of two civil society activists -- Alyaksandr Tsatsura and Larysa Nasanovich -- who were earlier jailed for 15 days over gathering signatures for two petitions to the city authorities.
Around 18 police officers were at the scene and filmed the demonstration, Tatsyana Kuchynskaya, a local entrepreneur, told BelaPAN.
"When they approached us to ask what we were doing there, we replied, ' This is a funeral for small business," she said.
Nine members of the unregistered Malady Front organization were assaulted after other demonstrators dispersed. According to Ms. Kuchynskaya, officers ringed around the youths and started beating them. "One was hit with a truncheon so hard that he fell to the ground," she said. "They beat even girls."
The youths were then put into a police vehicle and driven away to a police department.
The $1.5 billion that Belarus has borrowed from Russia and the $2 billion that it may borrow will not be needed to keep the Belarusian rubel stable, Pyotr Prakapovich, head of the National Bank of Belarus (NBB), told reporters in Minsk on January 30.
“There so far has not been a need to spend the borrowed money for this purpose, nor, I hope, there will be any,” he said.
He explained that the NBB had a $309-million currency intervention surplus in 2007. “I think such conditions will remain this year,” he noted.
The borrowed money will be used, above all, for investment projects, he said.
“Obtaining a loan gives us a double benefit,” Mr. Prakapovich said. “On the one hand, it can be sold to the National Bank and the Belarusian rubels can be used for investment projects, especially those that require budgetary support. By offering budgetary loans, the government can stimulate economic growth in the country.”
On the other hand, the borrowed funds could be used for maintaining the rubel’s exchange rate, although there is no need for that at the moment, Mr. Prakapovich said.
The NBB supports the government’s effort to negotiate a loan and in particular its negotiations with Venezuela, he said, adding that this money is “needed for the development of our economy.” He did not specify the amount of the possible Venezuelan loan, saying that the government, not the NBB, is responsible for the negotiations.
Venezuela is considering providing a loan to Belarus, Dias Nunes, the Venezuelan charge d’affaires in Minsk, told BelaPAN.
A decision on the matter is expected to be made in February, when a Belarusian delegation led by Viktar Sheyman, state secretary of the Security Council, will be on a visit to Caracas, he said.
According to him, the amount of the loan is classified information, but it is going to be a large sum.
First Deputy Prime Minister Uladzimir Syamashka said last year that Venezuela was ready to give Belarus a $500-million loan for 15 years at an annual interest rate of three percent.
As Mr. Nunes said, before Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s visit to Belarus in March, the countries are expected to exchange visits of experts.
Belarus is absolutely not interested in bad relations with Poland, just like with Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on January 29, according to the Belarusian leader’s press office.
If there are any problems in relations between Belarus and Poland, they only affect “officials and not common people,” Mr. Lukashenka said during Tuesday’s ceremony of awarding a doctor’s degree and the title of professor to a number of researchers and educators.
“Officials come and go, politics, which exist today, will go with them,” he said. “If something is actually happening in our relations, one should not look for the cause in Belarus. I think we’ll cope with this situation.”
Mr. Lukashenka was commenting in response to Boleslaw Hmelnitski, chairman of the Poland-Belarus Society, a recipient of a doctor’s degree in historya, who spoke about the two countries’ relations at the ceremony.
Mr. Lukashenka suggested that the quality of dissertations submitted by scientists should be under severe scrutiny. “There is no room for protectionism in science; there shouldn’t be accidental people there,” he stressed.
“I’m opposed to any politicization of science, but there’s probably no science that stays away from politics today,” Mr. Lukashenka said while speaking about historical research in Belarus. “I would hate it if you, scientists, were drawn into politics. We shouldn’t reject the heritage that we have. There are many facts in our history which we should be proud of.”
Mikhail Myasnikovich, head of the National Academy of Sciences, reported to Mr. Lukashenka on the current state and development prospects of geological exploration in Belarus, the press office said.
Participants also discussed the development of nuclear power engineering in Belarus and the training of personnel for Belarus’ planned nuclear power plant, the press office said.
“The awarding of degrees and titles is not just the ultimate recognition of your achievements,” Mr. Lukashenka said. “It also means tremendous responsibility before the country and the nation for the efficiency of scientific research, for the successful implementation of the government’s innovation program, which requires daily scientific support.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is worried about "pressure exercised by some Western countries on Belarus to force the republic into changing its policy."
Speaking at a news conference in Minsk on Wednesday, Mr. Lavrov denounced the "attempts of the economic and political pressure" as "counterproductive and short-sighted."
"Sanctions have never had a desired effect. Problems should be solved through mutually-respectful dialogue, not through dictate and pressure," the minister said.
Mr. Lavrov denied that any possible improvements in Belarus' ties with western countries may have a negative impact on its relations with Moscow, saying that Russia believes that all countries including the "closed neighbors above all" should "have an opportunity to realize their potential freely."
Belarusian Foreign Minister Syarhey Martynaw said that "criticism and unilateral measured are ungrounded."
"We are now working to neutralize these matters as much as possible to ensure that economic sanctions could not be worsened and even could be removed," he said.
Mr. Lavrov arrived in Minsk for participation in the Belarusian and Russian foreign ministries' board meeting.
Belarus is interested in obtaining a new stabilization loan from Russia, Finance Minister Mikalay Korbut told reporters in Minsk on January 30.
Nonetheless, he stressed that Belarus’ “financial position is stable now and will remain stable in the short term.”
The Belarusian government received Russia’s $1.5-billion stabilization loan at the end of 2007.
The loan was given in one tranche for 15 years at an interest rate of libor plus 0.75 percent and with five years’ deferment of repayment, according to the Belarusian finance ministry.
Minsk had asked Russia for a $1.5-billion stabilization loan since February 2007, citing the need to plug holes in the budget caused by a sharp rise in energy prices.
In 2008, Russia will consider giving Belarus a new loan amounting to up to $2 billion, Russian Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin told reporters in late December.
“There is a directive from our presidents that the possibility of giving a new loan should be additionally considered and studied,” he said.
It is most likely that the new loan will differ from this $1.5-million one and it is unknown yet in which form it could be provided in case of a positive decision, he added. //BelaPAN
Belarusian émigré writer Kastus Akula (Alyaksandr Kachan) died in Canada on January 29 at the age of 82 after a long period of illness, Alena Makowskaya, chairwoman of the Batskawshchyna World Association of Belarusians, told BelaPAN.
Kastus Akula was born in the village of Veratsey (near modern-day Dokshytsy, Vitsyebsk region) in 1925. He was trained at the Officers' School of Belaruskaya Krayovaya Abarona (Belarusian Home Defense) in 1944.
He fought against the Nazis as a soldier with General Władysław Anders’ Polish II Corps in Italy. He took part in the famous Battle of Monte Cassino (Battle for Rome) in 1944 and received two military awards from the Italian government. He graduated from the British Officers’ School in 1946 and was promoted to the rank of corporal. He briefly lived in Italy and Britain before leaving for Canada in 1947.
While in Canada, Kastus Akula was involved in founding Belarusian community organizations, establishing a church in Toronto, teaching Sunday schools, editing a Belarusian-language magazine and a newspaper, and maintaining ties with Belarusians living in the United States. He was one of the founders and the first chairman of the Belarusan Canadian Alliance.
His literary legacy includes the novels Zmaharnyya Darohi (Fighting Roads), Za Volyu (For Freedom) and the trilogy Haravatka. He was the first Belarusian emigrant to write a novel in English. Titled Tomorrow is Yesterday, the book explores the fates of Belarusians and Belarus before and after World War II.
31 January 2008