Suchergebnisse

The article describes the preparations for the elections to the upper house of the Belarusian Parliament – the House of Representatives of the National Assembly and local councils of all levels in February 2024. After the last presidential election in 2020 and the mass protests that followed, the constitution and the electoral code were changed in Belarus. The 2024 elections were the first to be held under the new legislation. Belarus invited observers to the elections only from friendly countries and international organizations. EU observers loyal to the Belarusian regime were also invited. The Belarusian opposition failed to create serious obstacles to the holding of elections. A number of media personalities have joined the House of Representatives, which should increase the information activity of the new parliament.

The article examines the historical policy of Byelorussia and its functioning in the Year of Historical Memory. The development of historical policy on the eve of 2022, declared the Year of Historical Memory, is analyzed. The state of historical policy in 2022 is investigated. Attention is drawn to the contradictions contained in the Byelorussian historical policy. The intersections of the Byelorussian and Ukrainian variants of historical policy are also analyzed.

The Byelorussian authorities began planning changes to the Byelorussian constitution back in 2016. In 2019, statements on amendments to the current constitution began to sound more often. At the same time, the Byelorussian opposition started talking about its draft constitution. The political crisis of 2020 has intensified the preparation of amendments to the constitution. The official authorities and the opposition developed their own versions of the constitution. The opposition proposed its own version of the constitution earlier, but this option did not arouse widespread interest. The government prepared its own version at the end of 2021. On February 27, 2022 a referendum was held at which the updated constitution was adopted.

Relations between Byelorussia and Ukraine in 2020 – middle of 2021 have developed quite pragmatically. Byelorussia was interested in Ukraine as a partner to rely on in the event of a conflict with Russia. For example, Ukraine was one of the countries through which alternative oil was supplied to Byelorussia. Kiev hoped that Minsk would hand over to it the Russians detained in Byelorussia, but the protests after the presidential elections broke Ukrainian plans. Having not received the Russians, Kiev decided on a policy towards Byelorussia and aligned itself with the West.

After the Byelorussian presidential elections in 2020, there was a turning point in the Ukrainian- Byelorussian relations, but there were almost no changes in the sphere of economic cooperation. In the first half of 2020, Byelorussia and Ukraine actively cooperated in the economic sphere. Minsk's resistance to integration with Russia was supported by Ukraine. Kiev also depended on fuel supplies from Byelorussia. Despite the political confrontation that began in August 2020, Minsk and Kiev have maintained stable economic relations. In the first half of 2021, political antagonism intensified. However, this situation did not have a clear negative impact on the economic relations between Byelorussia and Ukraine.