Belarus (magazine #10 2019) by BELARUS Magazine

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No. 10 (1033), 2019 Беларусь. Belarus

belarus Politics. Economy. Culture

ISSN 2415-394X

Partners and friends met in Zhytomyr

Newspaper from Belarus

Голас Радзімы edition of the “Голас Радзімы” is available at www.zviazda.by

The newspaper for fellow countrymen: well-known and well-read 1

Газета з БелаРусі

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Бе вядучых СМІ Турцыі, ж ад з l е d а та зім В сц Бі р. 7 z м на і ларусы і ўкраінцы цесна звязаны Польшчы, Літвы, Узбекі а Стста ы йц ар і пя via Ста ра .даў агульнымі каранямі — гістарыч Расіі знаёміліся з ходам бу тніц 5 ет ен Бе еz з а, ніц тва Бе ла рус кай АЭС. Між ны мі, ду хоў ны мі, ся мей ны мі, та л а 27 вер па Га му й не маем права страціць та народны прэстур адбыўся ў та асн Р Рт я, кое адзінства. “Гэта ідэалагічны плыні XXІV Міжнароднага Бе па 20 а 19 л пасыл, які ляжыць у аснове ўсіх ларускага энергетычнага і эка еz на )l l е З 05 е а ла гіч на га фо ру му, які пра хо дзіў ма іх раз ваг па сі ту а цыі ва Укра п 6 п v я р ц (3 тн ia на “Сп есен іне”, — падкрэсліў Прэзідэнт. у Мінску 811 кастрычніка. 17 об ова іц ай z Д № р т da а, Ён назваў Украіну важным сусе Надзвычай цёплай была сустрэча прэзідэнтаў Беларусі і Украіны ў Жытоміры Атамная электрастанцыя за l ад адк ь сл рае ы 27 ям ства . ч ц В b з е с дам Бе ла ру сі, ад ным з га лоў ных бяс пе чыць энер га бяс пе ку Бе ла б і н ер ” ілі ” y га ме ас ы до оў 6 гандлёваэканамічных партнё русі, а пытанні экспарту элект м і ісь ня Ста ся і ім іка п на здар Стар. ,2 р. 6 раў, што робіць стасункі з ёй для раэнергіі — другасныя. Пра тое ьн ага ей а дз 01 ы! сц аг зел уск 9 нас прыярытэтнымі. казаў журналістам генеральны бр га руск Уд лар Ра ся а е Якраз такія сустрэчы, як дырэктар БелАЭС Міхаіл Філі ыя таю бел яб ас ёл е Дн ус — оўн ві прайшлі ў Жытоміры з удзелам монаў: “Перш чым пачынаць бу ол ан р а Дня ет нім ых Г ф Ш чы аў Аляксандра Лукашэнкі ды Ула даўніцтва АЭС, мы адпрацавалі а еСло ейш ваё Па е“ Ш ьнік ва. эст н с д а н ю т т пы тан не: з якой мэ тай уз во дзім дзі мі ра Зя лен ска га, і да па ма га м л нс н у ы а ы за а Рэ н ля д гі чы рад l ўдзе ьм е точ апр р аж які ене ьваў юць міждзяржаўным стасун аб’ект. Першапачатковая мэта — ца да р го яго да піс Свя цінн ста ус і, ванн дол за во нач тару .П ай ля е го кам дынамічна развівацца, пры мы не павінны залежаць ад адна го А с р н а раа Ёднзе іКаі ар Вы гн ны , аст б іў д Сап яі алн бпра с пе свед 55 га са ела сем’ кП Ры улін і і л ў яго тым усталёўваюцца надзвычай го віду паліва, у прыватнасці ад Як “расшыфраваць” Жыто сдо тарсвеадзе, 19 Б ваеі аяў ымаюсчы жонкуўкра іш х ні. Вачаць р я еч ў леп крэўную та зін ін е ў т зр пр віваў ёст к яліукч ацін а н аван рВа шдзімірарам эфектыўныя міжрэгіянальныя на іха? ёсц аз ч ад радо в яко род а каў а з іХар газу. Асноўная задача атамнай мір… Хоць і ведаю амаль набыў мку з шчы ны. м ад іта а цьго. Ула аіч рнасць. разу ог аб н ыя апзвалян Ста аў Зр нне д Не с ь пол в т ара і ра ча , цц алжн айсдот т гервіч нробіцвец і. вя ар у К тар. 4 эш ум ак ю га а і ш ен аНе станцыі — забяспечыць устой су матцэх ВалянгацінмаВя заў пэўна, ды звяраюся. Жито мега Казі, найперш у гандлі, экано вып рас ае с75анек с аемьПм р. еерзааса дШ ца ка ю ла ўняк лдып ычка Б с а а с а пе іва ы р л т д в р ц М а ш ы н м а п ч н ч С ы э м а а Уіч Чар 8 с і . бел воб весуніга й ыя ча о да ь, ш міцы.суА нд ючы су. т на еце , у к — з т, бы асць лівае электразабеспячэнне Бела гаў ўкраінцаў — гэта жыта,С сло пісскую зен нам он ва у. лічктка,ада Вы цк змаёй інтэр лу гандлёваэканамічныя нов’ю 75 ымгія, ласць стр вел то ро в ов гіс рмангнаеені чынмя досўіх— ?Д то Сл скв іт німа ам г орад тка а, Па в д р з л ‑г у о а у а у л Д н н ў і о ш памяцьі мудсрава тэгалефа русі. І першапачаткова ж АЭС за (свет нуюць жз Кіева ўвес кантакты клю мір — таксама зра е лая ь з зя чавыя ў нашым а рзумелаеро безло ўтрКіеве мліну Місіяе ўвадць ыаццьн нуермны га вайц оддзя і мл н муг ршы рату іцы. апег і ай ле ся зраб йкі”, мі л кама ным ж па бро ха перну: шыстве. Амаль нне еж ў се авра а мы же п партнёр уС ў цэ му яз тагкой іць п ёгк тэр і м л равічу: в м дум ва ла ся ды ін тэ гра ва ла ся для пяць з па ло ці дзі мі ча му е це? Дык перакладу. У рго дзе а я нувул Ула ё а елян і Ва т і. С і я о о ы ў л к а а я л й п а ш д о га ы я й ч н ыцд д онар 7н5а ын ач н п а В а‑ ст за в а ‑ ы эт а ц ліч лміы ры я а ка на ва ка ліза сяр цк ь ереазаўўва ік ён ста ў.Пршмат а ’я чы, га в еўджаль ыбіў ьна працы ў беларускай энергасістэ вай міль бе поў жыццесцвяр най назвай ысрысць ав а зра х юць аказ т яжа ра У ўсё к ле прын “зб яль амі. хт — такім ся пр аяль я долараў доад ч ы рн адаў аб на а улаву, атут . Вцяі с авбыбу,і пад та лінарш узн абуд д зен тва Л у пр дар а еў у быВает ва й ла іўвы—ыу,ча быўну,наш ў го ж ым чн га ці звага Еван ды… пш — цып іваю ным т —а з адна л ства рцё пава ю ваэлра ітабаротюле бевла— а ы ме. А пытанні экспарту — дру рускаўкраінскага асяброў ныя та чаму (бо жыц іб жыта раешы. чы отаіе нік У зн ута ццтась. І, аслцмяль ввеятдры ск,“А ра л а п акла йн іц рад ва,п ван ы . 3 м м го ў гл рэ сіх ‑ І у імя ішч — с а, ра ют ую ягаСўскаг аліся ват ап ядкаі ммержаж арўс там трое ‑сцв гелл ясе н ін пім атр е: ха цца т м а ц в і. р ў . го с н а а ы й к с у а ‑ а р гас ныя: яны за ле жаць ад рын каў, ня ма су мнен няў, фо рум у Жы на па са дзе Ам ба са да ра Бе ла ру сі ча не ўжо юць?” — “Та яны ж ко ра ня…) пра хо дзіў на па чат с е а я ія ц а а і, п а з я д е д н а нс рэ іто я кал св юч усв вя б , ым це‑ ра як і Я саб рдж зг А н кі ха дзе аепр амал Ста в рсуцс а алсекім аецмк. УбоЯўкіяцьп убнкаўыдццні ю Бе га пр ыбін Фёд вяцк а трыч аёйдаўыновы дн м ет імзпульс ала ва Т ані да кан’юнктуры ды іншага”. Лка ўгл ыя я лі ты к к т н на для вадУкра не)сжар таваў: дзе ў бела д ялна поўд Дру т чы н кіла юто ц мііры ткаст ні!”.ю(Гл.:а “Тыкся па ран энн адае л е 1іго ло раз Аік згоку ц ор гіліст,фоварум мі лару аект ю й ар П ага п ‑ г к кімн й. ➔ а ікпайа муалсьта,свлетх оўтвраомканші тцаавдалі у.за‑ зайаль ь сіл ехта “све міль ную! ючы на катды ліс яБе ств ьру во саў і іны. э гегі— ы ру 59 Поў пэ двае пра сяро ы ў е: “Д м, ё урдзень дўзаемадзекяння: пад Аз ё пісаны кант ь у к Беларуская АЭС з двума рэ і — раасусед ёнаў па одоб мк ГР, о ва ўкраінцаў а црэ о — ў гэ намет н ла е ь у Укра на ралю сь за а. Н маш оўн рых іл нсі с, і іраў пдыства”. р вр д у пвы пдоагл эўн рм ая цма аўднзіа вуят сяурколрбо п ы — ажа тлай ны л — ва ве‑ м ў 1 агдэб ,ная трал ка ўна мас тое, д іх” імя зе д сць аК зі п мі дзя вай аг ты, яМ уцроды рэ мае бств ўсё а ду табн ы ад ода, ўп —нзо ад птмі ВВЭР1200 сумарнай , паўміль , а на т к од яьд у аыР нак авзеы,д нры юярда до р актаыра й есс‑ ю тэ тура а амаль кты на ПоўМнач. зе ты23.05.2013). Зрэш ад а па рбВяодо уХ ць ж ік Люд і тса йсма ж, меў на ўва ыам ы л лрь ы асяіка мыл ой, м што будуч дзе й‑ ірн э. І ан ы вялі ату цы штоў ж, в амі” як . М Маё вое а уо осаі т ічкаў,ц узе з ёснт НА еш З га м — м па алізу пая ам, ды мку асць зна‑ гор амі в ая сон ц коуд яяўла граіге ід р яета с а ра : ат а не рознасць све зазня.уцПраў м гутнас скаяй вобн зама геа фію, цам шмат цю налго ро дуко нч ійныня б ю лльнраў. , я да Быц с сузіпрай ам 2400 МВт будуец по (та нас едал ? Н дум ожа — ар чыча ц а да, ц гоусж оч ку та іцьВіэцеб не кажа ючы дна яна вызн свят но‑ аз “ІдДа і н ыні” : р ае, шт к аСт скаг а л ззал а з ліц по ліся еўр ам мі елаыдм ы і я аш ка гэт о, н т рге зекамгхстрэ а У праекце паблізут льн ла ць егі й івз’ае ласць ароя цапьаколь а Таднё а. ла эя піцса е мнен.не абы шца дл куюшло ,па ят погля даў. За савецкім часам сійскім с тв і ву кп ы а ў шы ап йцацяп яго ла хлгад Гэ шчмэарс айасіпад а ро які Вя яу ахў ўсзё тае ым ай ка), юў, адзест ыкі . даўц вых з у пахв м св пр льны тра ачал ара, очы, “ав а сіх зтахдапаў яль то паосра са!д—ццсу оў ычы Б ь с р м я у а С с м т ц т а о м ё а в у н б ‑ у і с л м т н ё п Св ў с м р н ан ніцкай, ы та трош і т Фізічны ан я ы су айз Він п ым нАст ца тсцсяэс ываў Укра х амэі”нцы ы аЛ пр ліч ро а‑ е в т шых Свпуск перша та по а м ст су л б чумясГвні і цы мго п ца. як вед аляю ету, аект, пач дыц ася на ы я сіц Чаркасцкай ы ўраў о х краыіяіне: т нпра трседзяў о 88 гоб ывкі тбольш, ва аі сна л ш еэцла я ацйы н ы З чн в ае зяЛ ка працаваў якраз на сГомелькір вўся ачь ілі яротпеора ы на ам .ім , кал овіцц к та ь ліч хра іку, алітв к і льна вялі дкі, ыю ерац ? А лыва нка аксі нскай Я гідзе ён ,— а чыць ых вах Мі Ль ўн аг ня а цзна одль вейчді оіАдэ шті га н ьКрым, д шчыне, там Украіна па сусед гу. р ы зац ны, ц в л чы хто пе. імшыывайяна о ці м ата й‑ ябстве. авмай мка, па тсло м ясды эма 15рачнас абілас ь энер я гаебло пе т а агу на, мы. пэўн ы: д пра й п кую . ала да ян цяа мі. пе ма Гомельскі, ток га ыі ую нмареазуней ыцц сйанкадплрандыяцыуйхорўаш ся ава аас аКн ае с таг од цы Цяп ыі. енне ся, а мы ы знк. 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На ніча Пера раек ельм звод на ‑ аляённілвоб ы. убцю. ➔ Стар. 3 льн ю авац эІван Іванаў ў ка ся зі,е прад Та рок дух ру атры по за зе аг о,сведтачыць а ўласным ча м та пскай а маўгу ьлані род ю, е умі кі тысяч беларускаўкраінскіх ка Рсу 7– сла на р л стаў устра т ня млас ‑ к шытоюмір а га ка ка эзід гадае е пра могі це “ і сім зяц‑ ай вібр ь, 55 аг ад оўск лош дра т ар а Міск г сі каў‑ф ў .Ук а‑ звя“геяінтаылкі кул кім а д оўна піцц ятыч а, ан е хмў, п оўцаадма чэач,к іхдненаямэннтатэ‑ энт м, ва !” У (1 г ў с о а п а в а а в т ч га ў у ы і н а ж р і п ў. н л ‑ ь ь д а а ч л ў, ы л о ь ы і сл ‑ н Ай ту р а а ы” н еяЛ кі п сл ь сцэ е, нцы внаецра Ко нааліт устпс сает, п эязіф уцса. н уч ск Л ой з с каг меа ІвасУпольнасць А Б ай г ? я ра ысве се ў Аляк раек аўн акты аву егу аг ыц Па ў х чын ра п ам с ыла дра елар ак‑ сха вас е. тар дэлчькіхсолаагаг аінхолПрэўнлаірло‑КА ва адн онім зад у р аў Сяр ўскі, зад, ап нск к б най онім ы вуч могі чана рачы санд т ан ая ца ўна па бач чы рам ную амя твар ся м джэ ускі Бе а ЭжН ча ўС ніасраіўкавды вторрэчб ў, д ага ікС Агі , я оў Сл ў Ж а на Сл . Па пта інаі літо уна ац (“П й 7 ста р Л анс рк‑ у о ы ікі ў, са‑ , а м св ць, ах Б : пр ці п аецц ола ння, мн эз ым гал ў ь” і а з н д й бе эзіі ыла ль п а хцн, ітмк мбл йАШ По алан ад т на с тва ліся ад ання а эатр (ску аПі ялік ўта — амят 4‑й га цыр укаш ваў ро ятар і ў ацьк аз у ра а но дзь. вы ацы каб в і”с, пу алеУнК па‑ іс лар , пр све т а м зе в зя а ір в ГР аць да ым эн‑ н г а іп Пер мі м ад яў, в оў і мал аўш века Вялі вая ік зі ан г одд ,1 .І пр е вед буд с на іцка ня РыэпрднраЛ ст ькіх ы Ан панс уска озы, т но 6.0 дзя віне оніі, а за ов н н лад гетм ан пісь на тка чы далі ядом верн ітвах чыны веча кую ан ацав рое‑ У а) кіст 5.2 це Пе хе ка й п пе вая с н нн ы ж “ і рав ята ар ы ху д зе ыр яўле аці. к а к а н (а в ь х ‑ й 0 ы К ць м е а я 19 ві кал ц і аў ш ол лы Э га п ісь рак кн св ар ат , дзе год аг аЖдд зе айМ анд ). Н на‑ ак е па адб ці за нев ) ім матл зна‑ Ал ер спар лаку. ігЁн ах мтэ не Вядомыспартыўнытэлежурналіст Ізраіль цікавяць майго мы на ты літ вічы 500 нск 0го Бож аўв тра а‑ од енма д а доўгі русь ды зям тыўн ядна ыва Ра ядом ёнаў ікіх кр сптыў е ін ную жа нных ро цц а сп е і55 оны етр апа на іц аў ім ываў і Н лі (з ую нне ецца дзім ых, ге‑ нарадзіўсяівырасваУкраіне, час праца сц і й ла уосспар онседніка як тэлежурналіста нн ы рэдакцыях суСбя ы Р тыў ча ят аУ ыр а йік ілам е дн а ц ы акц еба ямн дум — сво у. Та што ў” па рэалізуесваеталентыўБеларусі, налпрацягу многіх гадоў. І тэма Белтэлерадыёкам ніі, уіс узяначальваў іх, Св н аст іцка еньк тоем н аро п еды ыж ыі (Ве ых ку, пра еас кім аКў н в “ ы в з д а а н п с — я т К аўдалёкімІзраілі,назямліпродкаў, сёння ж — намеснік загадчыка аддзела іга гедыі яўрэйскага народа для м ыр о оц св між эк Сю н ым гіс я ка зб чнас одзв пам наш блі‑ нс ніг тра дезе втак азб тар пс ор ці) іга яц ую Ж сл яс яўу н ікі кай яў”. арод цкая ый сама блізкая. Таму мы з мна ад ш у к аўці к а в ыяма т э р ы я лыдля яго спар тыў на га вя шчан ня ЗАТ “Дру гі ц ь ў . ь н у а зям П ў ге ор ш ы іс ай Па в анн зель етн іц т ын іжн аст а аад ” (2 Ве ец ў воін чны лы б ёйБары лі ерш р — сцэнарыяфільма“Беларускі самлаІзідоравічам размаўлялі цыянальны тэлеканал”. Ягоная а пжур “ на чн ра іўд асв Свя за м “М нд ікі з аг р Літ ольш неш 01 ў м па ца п ска х да ды ў сп ы ояў) ы ара ператваж 9). пра ск ін гэты, пакуль што аг не: Ерусалім” лісцкая праца мае грамадскае аг піл кова ада чы ом адзі енн ру прызнан на веда а ўсё й сл веда падр ецы этап т ура а цікна Ко скім он ларыс Ізімдо о у пвіч ер урнменш ж бокв яго жыцця й адо ву ар ог стрэ стал лях ісьм Барыс Герстан больш вядомы ў Бела сёлета на пачатку годабеБа ь— ўс я в мы Бр Віц мляю й Бе авы —к з т ыхто яль‑ ыя зіў вя тац вра эст ебш ць ла зав ае д ны ч ыда па аўва твор “Д я су м якш і п сім ачы як русі як тэлежурналіст, які здымае філь ня ларускіл спар ра ых м ўка адзначаны прэміяй Д“Бе р эт са печас ч я ля ыта вец р аці. іка кіхтыў зн аў ва і дл углы ура аліся ш а ся б ч ду Сіл ыне, чыне СМ усі. М згор ес‑ твапош  рнукакцлэаррыс  цяпулярызацыю р ыч бдлде— Ба  ме рц л іч бр пнай лн Ра фі ял іч,  ні  ны Алімп” — заыцпа ма аво М , е ер І, ыт асто ны кр ар ат з’ех ет у. агра тво невя гос сіі зіч ўл іх ьн до  ная ендьы лІзі  іт тва , аа взн аш ш А х о а Г к р а а ін “ й т е т о , к ы к а а ў в д р гі ў р тов о“Хро  в ”ин. і кі  Мінск  ‑ ге та”,  м ага  е п вел по лё ме пра ынгі ‑ , ай д культуры йаспор ту, прапаган лі го” інс у п іта ым ын ы энт іі,цыіаўфільм  ылванга адс яро ая, дзі Чро падуазда л р ў бнлаик сУ ім разд яне ь а й , “ ў л сывсе оўзр па а З ўв на кра ей ой в гэт шч эпіц чн ай пр іг.С ярн а, нія аппа  ра Пра ўсяд мі ў е па шчы ьшчы шлі т Ка зенла рыі, шна мя зня  ладу жыц ця. елым  Ге кале наццамі,інЧэ ыШ х —сцэ  кбош Ан, ыттуы  св о ка лі б с у зьврва  мо ці усы кн апул ратур ль 14 Дал . Т ў. У дзен я ў ят о усн і. нн н Гер дал сказв хо зённ плыв мяці, не. не, іч о выар іс гш аці”бхііа,фзы  Ре: Бауцнта  ка льдБа ры многія ведаюць, што Ня рыс паказе ім р оя Гро ліс дс в іт ан а спецыяльным ў маё к хае,/ чалаеБарыс лар няў Герстан а а а д і укзоныстхдалуар  г “Зон  у э куе тэ‑а”.  Прэм’ р ЯкпивІса пе.ац  ап літа вна Га , дП,ітуяўн: ас ь іг у а уч фільма он Цы м р Гескай о ь Пн налвадэуа  “Зондаргета” чацц ць. С акцые жы юць нергі ы о ах К Б в ен ов лаўтаарера яго, спец  р адзей аз прай  оў сёле стан актыўны ў грамад э жнасРці. мн ю шзв Сл аіх ге адзе апын пер с кой чэз тра аль ры аннтераў.алі айемк мавук ная і на бом шак м рааўрунсіі.родіі, Пурсп аі руд рбеырклсіяадЛрур кУадпаабін па і м ццё на н я а,ху аасў.‑ п р і с ь о Д б н ь е н о к св гор аз у ьнай люд ыяш мі с скія д .. б я в л д . в р а т, е а л г та пе рад ад  па Шмат гадоў ён — на кіру Вц э м ём ма ну мен та  ят сядча я,ча талск нік аа о цсадах а‑ а,пючых зе к ела зяе ы нлаьрыц  шпчло я‑зіць б ы дым аюыццхм ЯарўССваястарктао, выл, уБ“Бреанай. сПіаэконвго ын Наскіх яёцнаў”  кім адр агул ц і і л яр ачны дзен в алі ру мс буд еадзашто  от Ха ла к рост  елназва  тлыаяць  ;/ацканебмка  аетцнў  па  ві,  обп“Ма  т амсіў ты ы о а ш ч ім  у  Трас  ц ян  ц ы  м у Са ю зе бе ла рус кіх яў рэй гра мад скіх л звя  з а  н ы  з  ва  ш ай  д ы я ф н т м а ь о а зн с д і я Л о е е х іг і д м с ц ы З с о а о а ,/ к л ы , зе К у м к , н а к Іва за д в ны ір “П сл Кн уісле Дынт Та. 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Беларусь. Belarus Social and political magazine № 10 (1033), October, 2019 Published since 1930 Founders: Zviazda Publishing House editorialand-publishing establishment Editor-in-Chief: Viktor Kharkov Executive Secretary: Valentina Zhdanovich

topical today as never before. Joint programs, projects, strategic agreements can not only contribute to the improvement of the environment in a given country, but also have a positive impact on the climate of relations between partners

Partners and friends met in Zhytomyr In early October, Alexander Lukashenko made a working visit to Ukraine where in Zhytomyr he participated in the II Forum of the Regions of Belarus and Ukraine. The head of the Republic of Belarus also negotiated with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. The leaders of the two countries discussed in detail the state and prospects of the development of Belarusian-Ukrainian cooperation, exchanged views on regional and international agendas Belta

About $40 million dollars of foreign investment has been attracted to Belarus for the wind power plant construction project

The magazine is distributed to 50 countries worldwide. Final responsibility for factual accuracy and interpretation lies with publication authors. Should any article of Беларусь. Belarus be used, reference to the magazine is obligatory. The editorial office does not bear responsibility for contents of advertisements.

Aurochses have returned to Polesye The last aurochs disappeared from the face of the Earth in 1627. In the twentieth century, attempts were made to revive the lost population of ancient bulls

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The capital of Turkmenistan hosted a meeting of the Council of the Heads of the CIS States

The topic of development of green economy in many countries of the world is becoming as

Signed for printing on 18.10.2019 Offset printing. Coated paper. Format 60х84 1⁄8. Conventional printed sheets 6,51 Accounting published sheets 7,97 Total circulation — 1625

Order Republican unitary enterprise "BudMedyyaPrayekt" Licence No. 02330/71 on 23.01.2014 220123 Minsk, Belarus, 13/61 V. Khoruzhey Street

The Commonwealth has new hopes

The economy will be forced to turn green

Registration Certificate No. 8 issued on 16.07.2018, by the Information Ministry of the Republic of Belarus Design and Layout by Tatiana Storozhenko Liubov Malysheva Proof-reader Alisa Gungor Беларусь. Belarus is published in Belarusian, English and Chinese.

Security as the main component of the world

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Money for wind

Minsk dialogue:

www.zviazda.by E-mail: belarus.mag@mail.ru Belta

Perspective seems favorable

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Man-made investments in the future. What are they like?

беларусь. belarus 2019

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32 Big world in a cup of coffee 36

Happy together

Evgeniya in a theater in Manhattan Evgeniya Romanovich in Grodno has earned a reputation as a person who creates an atmosphere of attention and respect for the theater. Open. New. Brave! The girl inspires like-minded people and attracts students by mental processing, inner courage, ability to make grandiose projects and achieve fantastic goals. And now she is dancing at the La MaMa Theatre in Manhattan

Makeup by Darya Yodel The artist tells about the title of world champion and secrets of the stellar profession

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Belarusian-Chinese literary relations were not actually born today. We can even mention the publications of Nasha Niva, which are related to Chinese studies. This topic is often covered in Belarus. And in the 1930s the Chinese proletarian poet Amy Xiao was staying in Minsk. In the late 1950s, China was visited by Maxim Tank

Turkmenistan, Kerim Kurbannepesov is in my heart Some pages from the Cuban Diary

In the field of artistic oriental studies

What are we going to be treated with? With pearl buttons! A fashion is nothing but an induced “epidemic,” said the playwright and astrologist Bernard Shaw. What kind of “diseases” did the ladies of Minsk, Grodno, Pinsk, Bobruisk, Mogilev, Slutsk and other large and not very large Belarusian cities have 150 years ago and even earlier?

One hundred years of creative work

summit

Perspective seems favorable

The session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council was held in Yerevan with participation of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko

It’s worth noticing that the latest summit was remarkable in two ways. Firstly, the summit was attended by the President of Moldova Igor Dodon, as the head of an observer state in the uni on and the guests of honor the Presi dent of Iran Hassan Rouhani and the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong. At the same time, Singapore and the EAEU signed an agreement on creating a free trade zone. The se cond important point is that next year Belarus will take over presidency in the Eurasian Economic Union. Speaking from the rostrum of the summit, Alexander Lukashenko called further elimination of barriers within the EAEU as most important for the future union: — The union already has enough barriers. It is particularly alarming when barriers are imposed in such sen sitive spheres as, for instance, govern ment procurement. It is time for the heads of state to look into the painful problem and make a political decision. The President of Belarus urged his colleagues to take a broad view of the de velopment of this integration association: — The EAEU is a very young insti tution. It is necessary to invest a lot of effort and assets in its development in order to create a comprehensive and effective economic union in 2025 at the latest or even earlier, in order to form integrated and effective economic union, to create common markets, to form uniform industry-specific poli

cies, and implement the provisions of the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty. Another result of the latest sum mit is that the heads of state approved the Concept of formation of the com mon financial market. Thus, Alexander Lukashenko stressed, the basis had been laid for ensuring the free movement of capital and services. He noted that the organization of such a market should be associated with digitalization: this would allow promoting top-notch fi nancial technologies and improving access to the entire range of financial services. — We will undoubtedly benefit from mutual exchange of experience in this area, the President is convinced. According to him, the EAEU has done a lot for digital transformation of eco nomy, formation of ecosystems for such sectors as trade, industrial cooperation, development of transport corridors, employment, as well as for ensuring traceability of goods movement. — This direction is gaining mo mentum, and it is time to streamline it, to supplement the treaty on the union with the appropriate norms. Simulta neously, it is necessary to pay attention to the issues of information security, to work out uniform standards and for mats of cooperation, — the Belarusian head of state stressed. As for the general recognition of elec tronic digital signatures in the Union, this issue should have been settled a long time ago, added Alexander Lukashenko.

Otherwise, he noted, it was impossible to talk about the digital future. The concept agreed upon by the heads of state, reflects the goals, princip les, stages, criteria and main directions of formation of the common financial EAEU market. The countries will have to agree on approaches to mutual recogni tion of licenses in the banking and insu rance sectors, as well as to cross-border supply of financial services in the secu rities market sector by 2025. It is speci fied in the Concept that a supranational financial market regulatory body should be formed in accordance with the EAEU Treaty. At the same time, its work will be determined by a separate agreement. Perhaps, according to the President of Belarus, the competence of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Court of Justice of the EAEU should be strength ened in this context. In his speech, the head of state touched upon the international agenda of the EAEU. He is convinced that it should be expanded. — Special attention should be paid to “far arc” countries, where our goods and services are poorly recog nizable for now. We suggest the Eura sian Development Bank should get actively involved in this work. Our national development banks and other financial institutions should also look for forms of closer cooperation both within the Union and outside it. The head of state positively as sessed the development of cooperation беларусь. belarus 2019

between the EAEU and third countries, including the development of a tempo rary agreement on creating a free trade zone with Iran, which will come into force in October, and a package of agreements with Singapore. — Your countries are very impor tant partners for us, and the potential for building economic ties is huge. After se curing the regime of preferences it is im portant to encourage business and the government to a more systematic inter action, — Alexander Lukashenko said to the President of Iran and the Prime Minister of Singapore who were present at the session. The President also noted with satis faction the readiness to sign a free trade agreement with Serbia and reminded that in October the Agreement on Trade and Economic Cooperation with China came into force. In June the EAEU and the People’s Republic of China agreed to exchange preliminary information on goods and vehicles transported through their customs offices in order to speed up the passage of goods across their borders.

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— The commission should work on a similar agreement with the European Union to make transportation from China to Europe through our countries most attractive, — said the Belarusian head of state. Alexander Lukashenko also noted that the EAEU had become more ac tive in its interaction with the Com monwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. According to the head of state, the integration associations have com mon interests in transport, industrial cooperation and digitalization. After Minsk takes over the presi dency of the Eurasian Economic Uni on, our representative will head the ECE Board. Alexander Lukashenko stressed that the country was preparing for this period with utmost seriousness. It is obvious that during the presi dency in the EAEU Minsk will initiate a number of sensitive issues, such as: One of the most important issues for Belarus is distribution of import customs duties between the states.

Work on the revision of the norms has been underway since 2017, with each country defending its most advantageous option. These issues were repeatedly dis cussed at meetings of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission, the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. However, so far, the countries have only managed to bring together ap proaches to defining the methodology for calculating the distribution norms. Now the norms of distribution of import customs duties are set in the following amounts: Armenia — 1.22%, Belarus — 4.56%, Kazakhstan — 7.055%, Kyrgyzstan — 1.9%, Russia — 85.265%. They are valid until the end of this year. Why does Belarus suggest recounting the norms? First, in August 2018, the norm for Kyrgyzstan, established during its ac cession to the EAEU, ceased to be effective. The norm for it was determined without calculations, so that the country’s econo my could adapt to the membership in the union more quickly. Later, the norms for Kyrgyzstan were extended until the end of

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2019: by this time, the EAEU states planned to have deve loped common approaches. However, so far, the coun tries have not decided on the period for which they should calculate the norms for the distribution of customs duties. The last discussion took place on August 9 at the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmen tal Council. The partners of Belarus agreed to increase the norm for it by 0.3 percentage points — up to 4.86%. In this case, the Belarusian budget revenues will increase by $37 million annually. The final decision rests with the heads of state. If the countries fail to reach a consensus, the mecha nism of import customs du ties distribution will apply to the imports of the four EAEU countries without the participa tion of Kyrgyzstan. Then the norm for Belarus will be 4.65%.

Removal of exceptions and restrictions A total of 52 exceptions and restric tions have been recorded in the Eura sian Economic Union. Belarus has been opposing them for many years now, but despite the adopted “road map”, only one exception has been eliminated. In addition, the number of barriers is growing — there are already 19 of them. Belarus is persistently promoting the consideration at the next summit of the abolishment of barriers, exemptions and restrictions. According to Minsk, it is ne cessary to revise the implemented and un fulfilled agreements, which were reached at the signing of the Treaty on the EAEU.

Similarity of positions It is noteworthy that all our EAEU partners agree on the need to re move trade barriers. Russian Presi

dent Vladimir Putin also spoke about this, noting that the association faced new large-scale tasks, and special atten tion should be paid to systematic work to remove barriers to mutual trade in goods and services. The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, also spoke in unison. He stated that Kazakhstan’s ex ports to the EAEU countries had been reduced: — Of course, there are objective economic reasons for this, but we do not write off the administrative barriers either. In difficult global conditions, it is extremely important for us to support the sustainable economic growth of our countries. This is possible only through real and mutually beneficial coopera tion, integration and collaboration. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for further removal of barriers in the com mon domestic market: — We have repeatedly discussed this topic and devoted a significant part of the meeting in a narrow format to this issue. We have created the necessary normative framework for free trade. This is a success. But in practice, the de sire to protect the position of their pro ducers in national markets in some cases prevails over the goals and objectives of integration… The situation is aggra vated by the fact that the introduction of restrictions is covered in detail in the media of member states, thus causing distrust in the integration, and maybe even its discrediting. Such practices are unaccept able and run counter to the principles of our integration, which re quires special and careful treatment.

On the sidelines of the summit Major interstate events are also a good reason for fruitful bilateral con tacts. In Yerevan, Alexander Lukashen ko met with his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. In this con versation, he noted: — We are aimed at a serious deepe ning of our relations. We have made

a number of proposals not only on trade in sensitive goods between our countries, but also on your country’s entry into the share capital of our larg est companies, which in terms of size are at the top of the world’s leading companies. This shows that we trust you very much. The Belarusian head of state hopes that his forthcoming visit to Kazakh stan will mark the beginning of a new stage in the bilateral cooperation. — I am very grateful to you for to day’s cooperation within the EAEU. We speak with one voice. Kazakhstan has a very constructive position, and it tells us a lot. Therefore, we are determined to develop our cooperation, — the Presi dent stressed. Alexander Lukashenko said that in Belarus great attention was paid to the work of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and his formation in the presidential ca pacity, although he has enough experi ence in politics. — It is a great value that we should not start from scratch: we already know a little about each other and had met before you started to work as Presi dent, — said the President of Belarus. During the meeting, the heads of state noted that the world trade would expe rience a crisis in the future, and many countries would face difficult times. — But together we will overcome them with the least losses. We are aimed at this, — said Alexander Lukashenko. In turn, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev pointed out that he had been watching the work of Alexander Lukashenko for a long time, and called the Head of Be larusian State “the most experienced” in the EAEU. — We are waiting for you to come on an official visit and are seriously preparing for it. The relations between our states, without any exaggeration and saying for effect, are strategic in na ture, — said the President of Kazakhstan. He added that in his country there is a special attitude to the Belarusian people, their history, culture and mentality. By Vladimir Khromov

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II Forum of the regions

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Journalists and experts began dis cussing the working visit of Alexander Lukashenko to Ukraine long before it began. As it was the first personal mee ting of the leaders of the two countries. Even before the visit, the President of Belarus promised that he would have an open, honest and sincere conversation with Vladimir Zelensky. The Head of State directly said about the immutabi lity of Minsk’s policy towards Kiev: — This deep big ideology is based on our common history. Our life is not

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easy today. We overcome all our prob lems together. I want to assure you: you have never had problems with the territory of Belarus and with Belarus, and you will never have them. We will always be your kindest and most reli able supporters, partners. If the new government of Ukraine wants to have fraternal close relations with us, we are ready to cooperate. Everything we agree on will be fulfilled. I want to as sure that we will scupulously fulfill our agreements.

It must be said that with all the chang es in the political field of a neighboring country, the vector of friendly interac tion has always been relevant and still remains to be. Therefore, Alexander Lu kashenko suggested that the summit in Zhytomyr should not be considered as an acquaintance of the two leaders: — Nothing like this. We have known each other for a long time. True, without seeing. Today we are meeting face to face in order to check clock once again, go over the agenda

of Belarus and Ukraine of our relations and come to an agree ment. History provided us with such a chance: by reaching an agreement to fulfill it for the good of our peoples.

Persistence will give results Vladimir Zelensky met the Presi dent of Belarus at Zhytomyr airport personally. In diplomacy, this is a sign of special respect. No one had any doubts that both leaders from the first minutes will find a common language. — Our countries really have no bor ders, — said the President of Ukraine. — First of all, I mean people. Our people are friendly, very close in their mental ity. I am proud that we have such good relationships. The communication of the leaders of the two countries in a narrow circle last ed more than two and a half hours. Go ing to the members of the delegations, Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Zelensky told them about some of the details of the conversation. The basis of bilateral relations between the coun tries, of course, is the economy. — We agreed that we will have a turnover of 5.5 billion or 6 billion this year — this is nothing, — said Alexan der Lukashenko. — Your suggestion is that we can reach 10 billion. There used to be more than eight (in previous years. — Auth.). The main thing is not to focus on simple trading. Our country is ready to invest and create joint ventures in Ukraine in various areas. The presidents even touched on such a delicate indus try as rocket and missile engineering. — This is not because we are bran dishing our arms, — Alexander Lu kashenko emphasized. — We are working a lot on the development of this industry in Belarus. We did not have such a production, but you do have it. We are very interested in your helping us with it. If you do, we will implement our project, as a joint one, in one and a half or two years. According to the Belarusian leader, other topical issues were also discussed:

— We are not concealing anything. We discussed petroleum products, oil refining, alternative ways of deliver ing oil, common markets, factories and funds… And electrical power after the commissioning of the nuclear power plant. I will not speak about the price. We already agreed on how and where we can sell it. There are a lot of questions. One of the most important topics is shipping along the Dnieper and the de velopment of port facilities. The Presi dent of Belarus recalled how during the harvesting campaign Ukraine asked to supply more diesel fuel and gasoline: — It turned out there were no car riages. To deliver it barrels were collect ed from around the world. And if there had been a water way along the Dnieper, the Pripyat, we wouldn’t have had any problems at all. By the way, at a plenary meeting of the forum, Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Igor Lyashenko explained that the issue of restoring shipping along the Dnieper would be resolved in the near future. Of course, the Presidents could not neglect the theme of resolving the con flict in Ukraine. Moreover, a few days before the meeting in Zhytomyr, the contact negotiating group in Minsk had agreed on the so-called Steinmeier for mula, having taken a step to the next negotiations in the Norman format and to peace in Ukraine. Vladimir Zelensky thanked Belarus for providing a negotia tion platform in Minsk, for supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Alexander Lukashenko ex pressed confidence in a successful peace ful settlement of the conflict in Donbas: — The insistence that the current President shows relating to the end of the war, I am sure, will be a success. I do not only wish you this. We are ready to do something together for Ukraine to be united, integral, powerful so that no one could eye it askance. These are our principles. However, the negotiations were not only about big politics and economy. They even talked about the possibility

of joint filming. After all, a mental com munity unites people no worse than a joint business.

Guidelines for the future While the Presidents were talking in the building of the Zhytomyr Regional Administration, nearby, about three hundred meters away, a plenary meet ing of the Forum of Regions was held in the regional drama theater. There were a lot of interesting ideas and suggestions on how to make cooperation between the regions even more profitable and useful. All this was interesting, but clo ser to lunch time, dozens of journalists began to move to the lobby on the first floor. Everyone was waiting for the Pres idents to arrive. As soon as Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Zelensky ap peared at the door of the drama theater, they were surrounded by reporters as king questions. The security services of both leaders at this moment could only be sympathized with. The insistence of some colleagues in an attempt to get in formation was just off the charts. Some one was simply content with a selfie with the Presidents of the two countries. The heads of state bravely endured this me dia “assault”. A little later, going up to the micro phone, Alexander Lukashenko once again urged journalists not to make a sensation about the meeting. He empha sized that the negotiations were not just a personal acquaintance, but became an important step towards strengthen ing and developing long-standing rela tions between the states. — It was like clearing the debris that had been created in recent years. Unfor tunately, it happened so that time chose us to clear this debris. Today we have started to do it. Time has provided us with a great chance to check clock and set guidelines for the future. Alexander Lukashenko noted that there are 120 cooperation agreements in force between the regions, districts and cities of the two countries. They make it possible to ensure the development of беларусь. belarus 2019

II Forum of the regions economic, trade, cultural and humani tarian ties on an ongoing basis. The scale of this interaction allowed holding the First Forum of the Regions of Be larus and Ukraine in Gomel last year. As a result of the dialogue commercial contracts and agreements worth more than $ 100 million were signed. When the Minister for Development of Com munities and Territories of Ukraine Alena Babak announced that the cur rent forum brought in more than half a billion dollars, Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Zelensky together raised glasses of water as a symbolic toast. In fact, the results of the forum speak of its relevance. Hence the pro posal to hold such events not once eve ry two years, but annually. At the same time, Alexander Lukashenko named the priorities of economic cooperation be tween the two countries: — Of course, Ukraine is one of the main trade partners of Belarus. Last year we increased our turnover by al most a quarter, but this is far from the limit of our capabilities. We are ready to negotiate an increase in the supply of petroleum products for Ukrainian enterprises. In the future, it is necessary to support joint projects in this area. We do not conceal the fact that we are currently exploring alternative ways of supplying hydrocarbons from world markets. Most of the negotiations were devoted to this topic. We agreed that we would not just work out the options, but would act directly. This is quite natural, not directed against any other countries. This is our need. If you want, this is the current security of the two states.

Economy is the basis Important preconditions for mutu ally beneficial cooperation, according to the President of Belarus, are created by the opening of the Ukrainian electricity market. The Belarusian side has already concluded several commercial contracts for its supply to Ukraine. — With the launch of the Belarusian NPP in 2020, we will be very interes

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ted in the experience of the Ukrainian nuclear energy industry, — added Ale xander Lukashenko. The geographical position of the two countries offers good opportunities for the logistics sector. The Head of the Be larusian State admitted that the transit attractiveness of Ukraine and Belarus can be strengthened by river naviga tion along the Dnieper and the Pripyat, its integration into the international wa terway.

Alexander Lukashenko:

We will always be your kindest and most reliable supporters, partners. If the new government of Ukraine wants to have fraternal close relations with us, we are ready to cooperate. Everything we agree on will be fulfilled. I want to assure that we will scupulously fulfill our agreements. It is clear that trade is a two-way road. Belarus imports Ukrainian metal, agri cultural and food products, feed addi tives, medicines and many other goods. The multibillion-dollar trade turnover between the two countries is formed precisely at the local level. Alexander Lukashenko gave specific examples of real economic cooperation in which the regions are involved. The benefits are obvious, which means it makes sense to create new joint ventures, jointly use the available experience, resources, person nel, scientific schools. — We offer our Ukrainian friends and brothers: let us come with the equipment and production that we have been doing for a long time, including in the time when we used to be within one state with you and created them togeth er, — said the President of Belarus. — All the republics of the Soviet Union contributed to the creation of aircraft

manufacturing in Ukraine, and tractor manufacturing, agricultural machinery manufacturing in Belarus. Let’s create these joint ventures today. We will come to you with the product, goods and technologies and will create what you have never developed, but what Ukraine really needs. Ukraine used to be a bread basket that fed the whole Soviet Un ion. Today you get sky-high gross grain harvest. They just told me: 75 million (tons — Auth.). I still can’t believe that Ukraine could harvest such a crop at this difficult time. It’s impossible to do it without tractors, cars, combine harvest ers. We have always produced them. We are ready to work together with you at these enterprises and create branches in Ukraine. It will unite us. Both politics and diplomacy are good. If there is no basis in the form of economy, there will be no such close friendship and mutual affection. Perhaps such close friendships does not appeal to everyone, and Alexander Lukashenko honestly said: — The closer we are, the closer are our states, the more united we will be, the more resistance we will feel. No one will ever, no matter what the politicians around us and in the world declare, al low us to be very strong friends. Unfor tunately, the world acts on the principle of “divide and conquer.” These words were applauded unani mously. It must be assumed that at least among the Ukrainian participants, few expected such frankness. It was not for nothing that the President supposed that some journalists might misinterpret these statements. Say, Belarus and Ukraine are going to be friends against someone. — Do not be shy, — joked Vladimir Zelensky. Alexander Lukashenko paid back in his own coin: — Well, Vladimir Alexandrovich, I didn’t force you to talk. Do not think that only there (in the East — Auth.) they will press us. But even in the West, they will not like it very much. We with the Presi dent (of Ukraine — Auth.) are aware of this and talked about it when we were

of Belarus and Ukraine the economy. Why not make bold to do, say, the Olympic Games. This is possible for the two countries. According to Ale xander Lukashenko, a special place in the relationship is taken by the dialogue of cultures, built on the basis of tradi tions and spiritual values that are close and understandable to every Belarusian and Ukrainian: — Belarus and Ukraine are not just neighbors. We are bound by bonds that are stronger than any of the most effec tive economic, diplomatic and cultural relations. These are the bonds of blood and spiritual kinship, of our Slavic unity. Today, these contacts are supported by business contacts, cultural and educa tional projects, tourism, trips to friends, relatives. We value our relations very much and very highly appreciate the friendship between our peoples.

There is work to do On the second day of the forum, a package of cooperation agreements was signed in the presence of the Heads of State. In particular, the Foreign Minis

tries of Belarus and Ukraine signed a consultation plan for 2020–2021. The program of scientific and tech nical cooperation for 2019–2021 be tween the State Committee on Science and Technology of Belarus and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine was approved. The Brest re gion concluded agreements on trade, economic, scientific, technical and cul tural cooperation with the Volyn and Transcarpathian regions, the Vitebsk region with Vinnitsa, Cherkasy and Odesa. The Gomel region will develop cooperation with the Zhytomyr re gion, and the Grodno Region Execu tive Committee will expand its coop eration with the Volyn Regional State Administration. Cooperation agree ments with the Mykolayiv region were signed by the Minsk Region Execu tive Committee, the Mogilev region secured cooperation agreements with the Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv re gions. So there is a lot to do. The results of the work done will become indicative. By Vasily Kharitonov Belta

negotiating face to face. We want to over come this barrier. We are kind people. We do not want to be friends against some one, to fight against someone. We must be strong. We will create joint ventures, sell, trade. If we, Ukrainians and Belarusians, make something of our own, a reputable, world-class product, then they will come to us faster, we will be reckoned with. In vestments will go to us. As your President said, we can also help others, if necessary. Vladimir Zelensky warmly supported the Belarusian leader, noting the importance of modernizing production for general access to the markets of third countries. The President of Ukraine emphasized that an intergovernmental commission can and should play a big role in this. On the Ukrainian side, its composition will be updated in the near future. In addition, Vladimir Zelensky supported the idea of launching a Belarusian television chan nel in Ukraine. Indeed, the more objec tive and reliable information about Bela rus our neighbors will receive, the more willing investors will come to us. However, Alexander Lukashenko proposed to combine efforts not only in

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Minsk dialogue

Security as the main component of the world Hundreds of experts took part in the Minsk Dialogue International Forum on the theme “European security: Stepping back from the brink”. However, the forum, without exaggeration, became a notable event not only among the expert community. The Belarusian capital attracted the attention of politicians as an active discussion platform on the most important regional problems. Moreover, a number of important statements on this topic were made by the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko speaking at the plenary session of the forum.

his time, more than seven hundred officials and leading experts from Belarus, Russia, China, the EU, the United States, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia came to the Belarusian capital to discuss the pressing problems of the geopolitical agenda. A lively and multifaceted dis cussion took place at the Minsk Mar riott Hotel. Nearly in all the speeches perhaps, the most important idea sounded as a powerful refrain: Bela rus remains the epicentre of regional peacemaking, a reliable and recognized one. Almost all international experts paid attention to this aspect. The fact that Minsk is increasingly becoming an international dialogue platform, where the active search for ways to re solve conflicts is carried out, key initi atives are put forward and analyzed, was pointed out at the forum by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Be larus Vladimir Makei. According to Vladimir Makei, the very fact that in the same room there are prominent current and former politicians, diplomats and par liamentarians, representatives of the OSCE, the Eurasian Eco nomic Union, the Collective Se curity Treaty Organization and

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NATO, as well as authoritative political scientists and experts, heads of lead ing analytical foundations and think tanks, testifies that the proposed issues of international and regional security are very urgent and relevant. It becomes obvious that today the Minsk Dialogue is the most representa tive conference on international rela tions in Belarus. Its peculiarity is the concentration of those experts who are aimed at stability and restraint of ten sion in Eastern Europe. These are nei ther adventurers or radicals, nor the people obsessed with any ideological points. It is important that many of them (maybe even the majority) are close not to political parties or ideological move ments, but first of all to the govern

ments of their countries. The relative technocracism of this circle of experts is combined with the current course of Be larus to be a donor of regional security. In modern Europe, which is agitated by a multitude of problems, such meetings are not often held. According to the observers, Minsk has established itself as a permanent place where various international meetings are held. The well-known negotiations to re solve the situation in Ukraine have also played a special role. In addition, Belarus has a special position in the international arena, which can be characterized in one word, i. e. peacekeeping. We do not thrust ourselves into peacekeeping, but provide our platform for discussing the most pressing issues. In addition, the very agenda of this forum shows that the main point is the issues of regional and global security. Eastern Europe has found itself in the epicentre of geopolitical confrontation, and Belarus is extremely inter ested in relieving this tension. Now the question is about what to do in the current situation and how should the global players come to terms. On the second day of the conference, the President of Belarus, Alexander Lu

Minsk dialogue

kashenko, took part in the plenary ses sion “In search of an agenda for peace and cooperation in Europe”. Of course, this unequivocally emphasized the status ness of the conference, reminding once again that Minsk is increasingly playing the role of a universal international plat form for the resolution of global prob lems of our time. Belarus is no longer just the geographical centre of Europe, but also the epicentre of a constructive dialogue between East and West, North and South. The theme of the forum “Eu ropean security: Stepping back from the brink” speaks for itself. The world has come close to a dangerous line. And if we do nothing today, it may be too late tomorrow. The time has come not just to discuss problems, but to act. And act ef fectively. This was the main message of the President of Belarus, who spoke at the conference. Alexander Lukashenko reminded, in particular, that the search for adequate and timely responses to the challenges of our time at this stage is one of the most important tasks of the ex pert community and politicians. This is evidenced, among other things, by the recent foreign policy forums held in Be larus on a wide range of topics, from in formation security and human traf

ficking to terrorism. This indicates an obvious increase in the interest of West ern and Eastern audiences in Minsk as a platform for dialogue. “Stepping back from the brink” — these words in the title of the conference, in the opinion of the President of Belarus, reflect the nature of the main problem in the in ternational community very precisely. Unprecedented tensions in international relations, undermining the foundations of international security, and the grow ing number of regional conflicts affect most continents: “We have already start ed beating the alarm, calling for the end to the confrontation. Recently, we have been talking a lot about the need for dialogue, confidence-building measures and the search for compromises. Unfor tunately, the world is not getting better. Moreover, we are witnessing a new round of strategic rivalry between the so-called great powers, “the poles of power”. Trade wars and sanctional confrontation are on the rise. The struggle for energy and raw materials is getting tougher. Obviously, the list of contemporary challenges to humanity is dominated by security threats. At the same time, Alexander Lukashenko noted that mul tilateral platforms, including the United

Nations and the OSCE, are becoming a place for presenting arguments but not solutions to the problems. “The system of military and po litical checks and balances is falling apart in front of our eyes, while interna tional organizations are unable to stop the process. Maybe, they don’t want to stop it. Maybe, the dominating forces in these organizations are interested in it,” the President of Belarus addressed the audience with a question. Today, the world community can not but care that the degree of mistrust and confrontation between the East and the West has reached its limit. Security and disarmament experts on both sides are already painting a picture, which is terrible in its credibility. Within just a few minutes, Russia and NATO, for ex ample, can go all the way from an un intended local conflict to nuclear war. After the recent withdrawal of the key parties from the IntermediateRange Nuclear Forces Treaty, the pro cess of destroying the arms control architecture is heading into the home stretch. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is the final frontier. If the parties do not agree on its extension, in just two years the world беларусь. belarus 2019

Minsk dialogue

will find itself in a situation where re lations in the field of nuclear weapons will not be regulated at all. This fact alone allows the President of Belarus to draw a conclusion that mankind is moving towards a line beyond which there is indeed an abyss. Unfortunate ly, we must admit that the big powers have reasons to treat each other with distrust. Unfriendly or even aggressive actions in the past perpetuate mutual suspicions and fears for many years to come. Where, in what is the solution? Ideally, we need to return to the concept of European security based on coopera tion. To the values of the Helsinki Fi nal Act, the Charter of Paris for a New Europe. “We all urgently need a strong success story that will convince even the fierce skeptics and ‘hawks’ that, despite deep contradictions and misunder standing, security interests in Europe are absolutely compatible,” Alexander Lukashenko is convinced. It was noted that over the past two decades Belarus found itself in a unique situation. On the one hand, we are a military and po litical ally of Russia, a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organiza tion. No other state has such a level of relations with Moscow as we do. At the same time, our country has conclud ed international agreements on security and confidence-building measures with all its neighbours, including the NATO member states. And with our neighbor Ukraine, we have more than 120 inter national agreements. “We are ready to fill these bilateral agreements with new

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content and improve them. The sig nals that we receive from our partners demonstrate that they are prepared for such interaction, the President not ed. — This is a unique resource in the current situation. And all of us must use it. We, Europeans, must prove to ourselves and the whole world that the architecture of European security can be restored, that there can be a differ ent model of relations between Russia and the NATO, between China and the United States, and a different projec tion of it on Europe, different from the one that we have seen over the past five years.” The success story of Belarus as a reliable partner that enjoys the trust of both East and West could be the answer to the question whether Eastern Europe could be made a cross-border belt of stability and constructive interaction. As a first step in the accomplish ment of this ambitious mission we announced, reminded Alexander Lu kashenko, that despite the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Belarus, which was its fullfledged participant, will continue im plementing it provided that there are no relevant external threats to our country. Today, a new success story of the Eu ropean security should be assembled literally bit by bit. Small and medium-sized states, such as Belarus, can make a real contribution to the revival of the “Helsinki spirit” in the European space: “I am convinced that the implementation of this ap proach is beneficial to all the key world

players — Russia, the European Union, the United States, and China. It is an abnormal situation when for so long we haven’t gathered at the summit level to discuss the current situation and prob lems, to talk face-to-face and give a signal to the planet. If not a signal, then at least we could dispel all sorts of myths. Why do we need the OSCE then? Why did we set up this organization? To send mis sions to elections? This is the organiza tion for security and cooperation in Eu rope.” The key issue of security in Europe, according to the President of Belarus, is the resolution of the conflict in Donbass. People are still dying in Ukraine. The re gion cannot find a way out from social, economic and humanitarian chaos. It is necessary to solve this problem. Then these dialogues will have some mean ing: “We cannot reproach the President of Ukraine for not trying to solve this problem. Much depends on us. And we have to take on a big burden, the major part of the solution to this problem. Yes, there is no immediate universal recipe for normalization of the situation in the world and Europe. But there is a univer sal instrument, the importance of which cannot be overestimated. Only through calm, businesslike, peaceful dialogue can we move away from the brink of a global conflict, where there will be no winners. And then to act by agreement. The need to hold an international summit within the framework of the new Helsinki pro cess — under the auspices of the OSCE, and possibly under the auspices of the UN — is increasingly evident, said Al exander Lukashenko. We need to adopt a strategic document to strengthen in ternational security in the Euro-Atlan tic region and on a wider scale. Today, the President of Belarus is convinced, that it is impossible to resolve these is sues without such a heavy hitter as the People’s Republic of China. It is impor tant to take into account the opinion of other countries whose influence in the world is growing: “We are ready to help advance the Helsinki 2 idea, the dialogue between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union, the CSTO

Minsk dialogue and the NATO, the alignment with Chi na’s Belt and Road initiative, with the SCO, ASEAN, the development of the Digital Neighborliness Belt (there is a lot of talk about it today). We will support all constructive ideas aimed at overcoming dividing lines and preserving peace.” Of course, any dialogue is impor tant and valuable, especially at a time of growing geopolitical tension. We live in a very difficult time, when politicians stop hearing each other. The existence of such platforms where the views of different parties can be exchanged is undoubtedly very valuable. The topic of this forum in Minsk is connected with the need to prevent the escalation of conflicts. And it is important for the Be larusian side to promote its initiatives, for example, such as the Helsinki 2. Another important aspect is to prevent the deployment of short- and mediumrange missiles in connection with the collapse of the Treaty. We must assume that all constructive messages from Be larus in this regard will be heard both in the West and in the East. After all, it is obvious that the Minsk site is already given great significance to as an effec tive channel of communication. We see the activity and great desire of various experts and officials to participate in the conferences of the Minsk Dialogue.

Well, the reality of contemporary in ternational relations calls for everybody to respect international law. We need common security systems based on the principle of the UN Charter and the Hel sinki Treaty. We need to take decisive and strong measures to address potential risks that undermine the national unity and security of states. The rules and limita tions of the Cold War period have gone, and now the states still posses destructive weapons and heavy problems in creat ing the world based on respect for law and tolerance. And Belarus is undoubt edly an important donor of security in the region. The country plays a significant role in modern international politics in the negotiation processes on numerous conflict issues — and not only on the cur

rent Ukraine, but also on the long-time Minsk initiative on the Karabakh conflict. And the fact that Minsk has managed to gather a fairly representative forum, which was attended by Russian research ers, as well as representatives of the cir cles that develop political solutions, and representatives from European countries and the United States, is very important. Regretfully, the dialogue in the modern world is becoming more and more com plex. And Minsk is one of those platforms that provides an opportunity for dialogue, for better understanding, for understand ing the “red lines” that exist on each side. And in fact, it provides an opportunity to come to new ideas. By Vladimir Mikhaylov. Photo by BelTA.

Opinions Commenting on the report on the future of the Eurasian region and ensuring its security, presented at the forum by the Younger Generation Leaders Network of Euro-Atlantic security, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Belarus Dmitry Mezentsev noted: — We are on the land of Belarus, which is friendly to us and which has repeatedly shown the most sincere attitude to all the guests who come to this historic land, while all the diplomats in Minsk work comfortably within the framework of the system of relations with the leadership of the Republic of Belarus, the Head of State, the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the conversation about regional security in the triangle set out in the report of young diplomats and experts — the European Union — Russia — China — will be very limited if we do not mention another center of power, i. e. the United States of America. I think the conversation will be meaningful only when we take this factor into account. Brad Freden, Director of the Office of Eastern Europe, U. S. Department of State: — We look forward to strengthening our cooperation with Belarus in the areas where we have common interests. And another important point to stress is that we should not demand from Belarus to choose between the West and Russia. We have good relations with Belarus, and we believe, given the geographical location of this country, its political and economic relations, that it will always have a special format of relations with its neighbor in the east. And we have absolutely no intentions to change these relations. беларусь. belarus 2019

Belta

The Commonwealth has new hopes The capital of Turkmenistan hosted a meeting of the Council of the Heads of the CIS States

t is no exaggeration to say that as long as the CIS exists, there are so many statements about the need to strengthen or reform this integration structure. This is quite a rea sonable approach — to wish to perfect some thing that can work more efficiently. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly noted that the value of the Commonwealth lies primarily in the fact that it provides a platform for the exchange of views between leaders of sometimes very different countries from the point of view of their foreign policy, aspirations and preferences. Well, even if the CIS is more of ten called the “Discussion Club of the Post-Soviet Presidents”, communication is positive in itself. It reflects the desire of a number of states for greater mutual understanding and cooperation.

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The atmosphere was the same at the meet ing of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States held in Ashgabat today. The primacy of the economy, unity of views on the common historical past and modern priorities, joining forces in ensur ing security and resistance to modern chal lenges and threats — these statements are likely to briefly but succinctly characterize the content of this meeting. The topic of the CIS upgrading is still relevant. Alexander Lukashenko is convinced: — The events in the world show that there is an objective need to strengthen our Com monwealth as a self-sufficient and effective as sociation. Yes, the well-known worldly wisdom that power is in unity is still topical. This thought passed through the speech of the Belarusian President as a refrain in all possible aspects, but above all in the economic one. Alexander Lukashenko addressed his colleagues with the following words: — Let’s not deceive each other or cheat. The longer we drag out the process of our economic unity, the more opportunities and reasons ap pear for us all — states — to look another way, to seek happiness somewhere else. Though it is not clear why.

topically By the way, next year the center of the Commonwealth moves to Uzbekistan. The outgoing chair-country, as re quired by the regulations, is to work in the status of co-chair. As well as Belarus, which will lead the further movement to wards strengthening the CIS in another year.

The main mover of the community The declaration on strategic economic partnership in the CIS has the character of one of the key documents of the sum mit. The topics of business interaction were in this or that way touched upon by each of the speakers. Russian Presi dent Vladimir Putin, for example, emphasized the need to remove barriers to mutual trade. He spoke about the need to use national currencies in settlements with each other. The is sues are topical, and Minsk has repeatedly raised them in var ious integration formats. Presumably, if now this issue is brought to the level of the CIS, there is an understanding that it is high time to move in the solution of these issues from intentions to actions. Another topic — the synchronized digitalization of econ omies — was also voiced more than once by the Belarusian side. That time, it was raised by the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Zhomart Tokaev. In short, the similarity of assess ments on the most pressing issues of the integration agenda at the summit was obvious, and this is a good sign. Alexander Lukashenko drew the attention of his colleagues to the fol lowing key point: — The economy has been and remains the foun dation of our interaction. And it is very impor tant that this document (the declaration men tioned above. — editor’s note) once again confirmed the desire to consolidate the economic potentials of the countries of the Commonwealth. The head of the Belarusian state noted that Minsk supported the intensification of coopera tion in key areas. Primarily in the field of trans port, energy, industrial cooperation, mutual invest ment and trade. A powerful reserve is seen in expanding the domestic market of partner countries, increasing its capac ity. First of all, due to further liberalization of trade in both goods and services. A return to full-scale industrial coopera tion and the creation of new joint competitive enterprises can give additional opportunities. The President of Belarus noted that the CIS countries had actually reached the final stage of preparing the CIS Economic Development Strategy for the pe riod until 2030. Minsk proposes to supplement it with concrete breakthrough projects that could become common promising points of economic growth. Alexander Lukashenko called the formation of a fullfledged free trade zone as the most important task of the economic agenda. The work on the draft Agreement on a

free trade in services should be completed as soon as pos sible. — Using the potential of this sector is in the interests of all Commonwealth states, — believes the Belarusian leader. Alexander Lukashenko spoke about the further economic rapprochement of the countries of the Commonwealth exclu sively in the applicative sense. The main message is that in tegration should show a real effect for each of the parties. In this case it will develop dynamically, without the need for any additional incentives.

A fundamental view of history An important summit document is the joint appeal of the Heads of State on the occasion of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. With all the unity of assessments of the funda mental pages of the general history, there are some discrepan cies in details. So, at the beginning of the summit, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan entered into a rather sharp discussion about the nature of some events of the Great Patriotic War and the participation of individuals. Yes, perhaps there is room for discussion, but only with the immutable acceptance of the main thing, as the President of Belarus said: — Then there was no division. All fought on one side. Eve ryone saw a common goal and perished. And this date is call ing for unity. By the way, this year we have already celebrated the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus. Our people paid a high price for their freedom. Every third Belarusian perished in the fight against fascism. We feel the consequences of that ter rible war to this day. Alexander Lukashenko emphasized that Belarus had to suffer enormous losses on many occasions through no fault of its own. Including the Chernobyl disaster, when it was our country that suffered more than others: — We did not exploit it, we did not blow it up. But 75 percent of this disaster fell on Belarus. I don’t of ten speak about it, but it’s worth recollecting. This is our heavy burden — the consequences of World War II. To say nothing of other issues. Returning to the military topic, the President of Belarus once again emphasized the fact that at the expense of incred ible efforts and losses, it was the Soviet people who had won the war: — Dying in the besieged Brest Fortress and besieged Leningrad, fighting near Stalingrad and Kursk, liberating Europe and storming Berlin, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrain ians, Kazakhs, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Moldovans, Geor gians, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Turkmens, Uzbeks, other peoples did not think about their nationality. They were united when they беларусь. belarus 2019

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The answer to modern challenges

Speaking at the summit, the President of Bela rus stated with regret that security threats domi nate the list of modern challenges to humanity. Their number is growing like a snowball: — One of the reasons for this is the progres sive loss of trust in relations between countries. Therefore, today more than ever, it is necessary to search for a unifying agenda, new ideas shared by a wide range of states and organizations. Terrorism remains the most acute problem. No country in the world alone can cope with this adversity. The key to success lies in close coordination at all lev els. Therefore, our Program of cooperation of the CIS member states in countering terrorism and other violent manifestations of extremism today is The capital of Turkmenistan today much needed and relevant. We should not settle upon the program. It must be deepened, expanded. were hoisting the Banner of Victory over the Reichstag. So, Alexander Lukashenko urged his counterparts to take a our Victory is one and indivisible! close look at new terrorist risks and threats. The President re Thus, it follows that any attempt to justify, and even more, called the international high-level conference held in Septem to glorify fascism is unthinkable and unacceptable to us. ber in Minsk on combating terrorism with the use of brand — It must not be tolerated by any means. See, a wave is new technologies: rising in Western Europe. See what is going on in Germany. — We came forward with the initiative to form a “digital They may have forgotten the lessons of history, — the Head of neighborhood belt”. A very important topic. the Belarusian State outlined his firm position. The President of Belarus suggested that the heads of CIS Speaking about the lessons of the past and the present, Al states should exander Lukashenko touched upon the Ukrainian topic. More support the initiative. It is well-known that at the above over, he recently visited this country, met with its new Presi mentioned Minsk conference another initiative was put for dent Vladimir Zelensky, therefore, he was more immersed in ward — on non-deployment of medium and shorter-range the topic than any of his colleagues. He knows it well from in missiles in Europe. In that respect, the Head of our state noted: side. And when such knowledge becomes general, it gains even — After the termination of the relevant treaty, the appear greater value. The President of Belarus addressed the heads of ance of such weapons in the European part of the continent is state of the Commonwealth: becoming very likely. And this inevitably entails the threat of — Speaking about the new government in Ukraine, I would a new round of military confrontation. like to urge you to support this government. Why? Because you Alexander Lukashenko emphasized that Belarus fully already see a tendency to curtail this power. Subdue. Overthrow. supported Russia’s anti-missile initiatives to maintain control But we must understand who will come to power in Ukraine af over particularly dangerous weapons: ter that. This will be more that a hotbed of nationalism. — Belarus, as a full participant in the agreement, did not Alexander Lukashenko emphasized that when signing the withdraw from it. And henceforth, it does not intend to do appeal on the anniversary of the Victory, the Heads of State, this if there are no threats to our security. Unfortunately, there our peoples once again demonstrate unity and friendship, a are such threats. careful attitude to a common great history: Minsk also proposes to develop a declaration of responsi — By a united front we oppose to the attempts to dis- ble countries on non-deployment of intermediate and short tort and falsify it. Together we stand for the resumption of er-range missiles in Europe. The adoption of such a document a broad international dialogue on strengthening the global would be an important step in reducing tensions, restoring security system and confidence-building measures… I don’t confidence and strengthening international security. know how you will accept my other statement, but it is closeThe next Commonwealth Summit is scheduled for Octo ly connected with the events 75 years ago. We were together, ber next year in Tashkent. Although, at the end of the upcom we fought together. And look what is going on in the post- ing December, an informal meeting of the CIS heads of state Soviet space. So many conflicts. Why don’t we resolve them? should be held in St. Petersburg. By Alexey Fedosov If we are capable of something, we must solve these problems.

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ecology

The economy will be forced to turn green The topic of development of green economy in many countries of the world is becoming as topical today as never before. Joint programs, projects, strategic agreements can not only contribute to the improvement of the environment in a given country, but also have a positive impact on the climate of relations between partners.

Minsk hosted the 3rd Belarusian-Italian Business Forum on Green Economy, at which not only such important issues as the growth of mutual trade turnover and the establishment of joint ventures were discussed, but the way to combine purely economic areas with environmental initiatives was also spoken about. First of all, in such areas as the develop ment of alternative energy, recycling and others. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko, who took part in the forum, spoke in detail about the main prospects for the de velopment of green economy in Belarus. In particular, accord ing to him, the state programs in this direction are being imple mented in the country, while the legislation is being improved. Documents in the field of environmental protection and ra tional use of natural resources are being developed. — The principles of green economy are relatively new for us, but taking into account national peculiarities and global

challenges, the state defines this direction as a strategic prior ity, said Igor Petrishenko. It’s worth mentioning that today the principles of green economy are integrated in the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of the country up to 2030. But this year the National Strategy for Sustainable De velopment of the country up to 2035 will be formed. It will be based on the approaches that view a green vector of develop ment as a transition to a fundamentally new resource-saving model of a closed-cycle economy. It is connected with ensur ing efficient and ecological production and maximum use of secondary raw materials. Deputy Prime Minister also noted that Belarus sees the dynamic development of the Belaru sian-Italian economic cooperation as one of the keys to suc cess in implementing the relevant approaches and projects. The Italian ambassador to Minsk, Mario Baldi, in turn, drew attention to the huge potential of Belarus in the field of innovation in IT and construction. — This can give a lot for the development of the economy and cooperation between Belarus and Italy as a whole,” he said. This year’s forum was attended by 35 Italian enterprises, companies and more than 150 Belarusian companies. Am bassador of Italy expressed hope that it would bring real re sults in the near future, for example, new contracts for Be larusian and Italian companies. Chairman of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vladimir Ulakhovich, in turn, said that Italian investors in Belarus might be inter ested in the developed infrastructure, highly qualified person nel, stable business conditions, opportunities to create joint products with Belarusian added value and promote them on the Eurasian Union market. First of all, he said, investors will be interested in working in the regions, where there is still a huge potential for the implementation of joint projects.

Igor Petrishenko speaking at the Business Forum

By Oleg Bogomazov

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Man-made investments in the future.

What are they like? Let us turn to the fact that the focus of the world leaders who gathered in September for the annual session of the UN General Assembly was the need to eliminate the climate threat hanging over the planet. The heads of state, together with the reaction regarding the growth of military tensions in the Middle East, publicly and seriously considered the problem of global warming. We can say that, undoubtedly, the most acute issue of our time is emerging against the general political background.

es, scientists leave no doubt that the climate is chang ing and the consequences of these changes are grow ing every year, affecting all countries and every person. These are more frequent natural disasters like tornados, floods, droughts, forest fires, melting of mountain glaciers and arc tic ice and many other, at first glance, imperceptible changes that affect both productivity, water availability, trans port, residential infrastructure and health of people.

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Expert reports suggest that it is very likely that human activity, and, above all, the burning of fossil fuels, makes a significant contribution to climate change. Therefore, the common ef forts of all countries are needed both to adapt to climate change and to re duce the impact on it. The debate at the climate summit in New York was also dedicated to the search for such solutions. There high-ranking politi cians were seriously criticized by Greta Thunberg, an environmental activist of a very young age.

ecology Belarus has always supported meas ures aimed at environmental safety. At one time, at the thematic debates of the UN General Assembly on Climate Change, the delegation of Belarus called on the UN Member States and the UN Secretary General to facilitate the speedy implementation of the Kyo to Protocol by the parties. In particular, it dealt with the national procedures necessary for the entry into force of the amendment, which establishes for Be larus voluntary commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The early ratification of the amendment could be a practical confirmation of the ability of the international community to take timely collective action to prevent nega tive climate change. The Belarusian del egation also drew the attention of the UN General Assembly to the issue of joint development and transfer of en vironmentally friendly technologies to the countries that need them. The em phasis was on creating a mechanism to expand access of developing countries and countries with economies in transi tion to new and latest technologies that help prevent adverse climate change, including in the field of new and re newable energy sources, energy effi ciency, and energy conservation. Well, one can count on serious progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preventing global warming only when advanced energy technologies become

a universal property. Here any positive experience is valuable. One of the important tasks of the “Green Cities” project of the UNDP and the Ministry of the Environment of Belarus was the dissemination of positive results in the field of active en vironmental development throughout the country. For this purpose, on a com petitive basis, the project provides cit ies and municipalities that have joined the international initiative “Covenant of Mayors on Energy and Climate” with assistance in the development and im plementation of their action plans. As a matter of fact, the covenant of mayors for climate and energy is a community of local authorities, united by an obliga tion to develop their territories on the basis of the principles of sustainable energy. To be more precise, within the framework of the European Union ini tiative, local authorities (cities and re gions) take voluntary commitments,

for example, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on their territory by at least 30 percent by 2030. Last year five set tlements were selected on the competi tive basis in Belarus to provide expert support. Such assistance was received by the regional centers Baranovichi, Pruzha ny, Liozno, Mstislavl, Slavgorod. The Green Cities actively cooper ate with the Interaction Foundation and the Ecopartnership international public organization, which also help the project participants in preparing the plans for active environmental de velopment. Today, our interlocutors are Mariya Faloleyeva, chairman of the Central Council of the Ecopartnership MPO, and Vladimir Rak, a specialist in the field of energy, technical expert of the Interaction Foundation. — How active is Belarus in comparison with other countries in disseminating positive results in the field of active environmental development? Vladimir Rak: Thanks to good col lection of statistical data in Belarus, we are at advantage in comparison with many countries that simply do not have access to such reliable data. But we have accurate calculations and de tailed plans, which may include doz ens, if not hundreds, of various activi ties in the field of active environmental development, including the activities for individual organizations. For other

One can count on serious progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preventing global warming only when advanced energy technologies become a universal property

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ecology

Not only in Belarus, but, for example, in the countries of the Eastern Partnership, most cities join the Covenant of Mayors in order to further receive some financial support for the implementation of their activities in the field of active environmental development Mariya Faloleyeva

countries, the normal situation is when only a few organizational measures are planned in this area with an approxi mate assessment of the results. Mariya Faloleyeva: In general, Bela rus is actively involved in the Covenant of Mayors and the development of plans for active environmental development. Judge for yourselves: to date almost 50 cities and regions have signed the Covenant of Mayors in the country. A positive side for us is the availability of energy efficiency programs at the na tional level. In recent years, the work in this direction has been underway. The topic of energy efficiency is familiar to everybody. A part of the obligations under the very 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the city is achieved through those actions that are already being implemented. But here there is a downside, from my point of view, which cities in the EU countries have already encountered. Easy victo ries often do not motivate to move on. And to achieve the global goals out lined in the Paris Climate Agreement, that is, limiting the temperature in crease by 1.5–2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, reducing emissions by 30 percent is clearly not enough. Radical measures are demanded not only in the energy sector, but also in transport, construction and consump tion. In a word, in all sectors of the ur ban economy. This requires a gradual but persistent restructuring of the ur ban economy. Only then can our cities

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be successful and competitive in the future. These, of course, are large, longterm goals. But they must not be over looked. We must understand that those plans, that are being developed now, are not the final point of action. We are only at the beginning of the journey. As for plans for adaptation to climate change, here everyone still has very lit tle experience. We all are taking the first steps and getting bumps and bruises. Sometimes it is very difficult for our cities to make independent decisions, especially since the legal status of ac tive environmental development has actually not been defined. Sometimes everything depends on the activity of a particular city administration. In general, I believe that the cities that join the Covenant of Mayors are making a very bold move. This was es pecially true of the first signatory cities: then everything depended on the initi ative of city administrations, even spe cific individuals. In general, not only in Belarus, but, for example, in the countries of the Eastern Partnership, most cities join the Covenant of Mayors in order to fur ther receive some financial support for the implementation of their activities in the field of active environmental devel opment. Again, it all depends on desire and motivation. After all, everyone has the opportunity to sign, but someone does it, and someone does not. Vladimir Rak: It’s probably im possible to boast of any fundamental

changes in connection with the im plementation of the project. Because, as it has been mentioned, this work was carried out in our country. Some other countries do not have govern mental plans of energy efficiency, and they did not work in this direction. We have been doing this work for more than ten years and are continuing in the same vein. Sudden changes do not occur, but at the same time opportu nities increase: both in the form of expert support, and in the form of investments in equipment. Another thing is that in the dis tricts they never had their own long-term plans. Plans for energy conservation, heat supply, electricity supply were developed at the national level, and i nd i c e s

Cities of Belarus that have joined the international initiative "Covenant of Mayors on Energy and Climate”

were given to the districts, according to which they made an annual plan and implemented it. The first longterm documents in the field of energy have become promising areas in the field of active environmental develop ment. They make it possible to devel op a concept and determine priorities at the local level. Without such plans many activities before did not reach the maximum possible savings. To make it

ecology clear, for example, a new boiler room is launched, and then the houses are made cold-proof. As a result, the boiler room is not given a full load, efficien cy is reduced, etc. Today, all such points are provided. — Are there any standard activities typical of our cities, which local administrations is ready to implement first? Vladimir Rak: The methodological tool that we developed for the Green Cities project contains a data base of more than fifty typi cal activities, and the en ergy effect is calculated for each.

The cities ac tively use this da tabase to compile a list of activities. Most often, our regions are engaged in insula tion and window replacement, they in troduce energy-efficient lighting, and use local kinds of fuel for boiler rooms. Many have planned the installation of heat pumps, solar panels, solar collec tors depending on financing and these are longer-term goals. Mariya Faloleyeva: In terms of im plementing measures for climate adap

tation in each region, everything is in dividual. There is the so-called reactive adaptation, when the current problems are obvious, and the work is being done to solve them. There is a set of measures that should be developed for the longterm perspective. This has always been difficult at the local level. Therefore, at this stage, we are trying to guide the re gions so that they, first of all, should as sess the impacts of climate change at pre sent, in the near future and in the longer term — for 30–50 years. And they should also take into account how the actions that they are implementing now look like with account of climate change. The big problem is the lack of data and long-term climate forecasts that are accessible and understandable for local experts. By the way, this is a problem not only in Bela rus. There is still a lot to do. Among the obvious activities that cities are imple menting first of all is the development of a green space system. But this is not planting for the sake of planting, but the formation of a single green frame work that works to clean the air, and to create a comfortable microclimate and shading, as well as sanitation. Green areas improve the permeability of the surface, reduce the load on storm sewerage and reduce the risk of floods. Secondly, this is the improvement of the sewage system itself. In Belarus, the re gime of precipitation is changing, we of ten began to observe floods and flooding. This means that the load on storm sew ers is increasing. If we look at it from the

point of view of climate adaptation, ordi nary repair works are no longer effective. Unique long-term measures are needed, a new infrastructure must be built and planned with account of climate change. Thirdly, this is a change in building stand ards, first of all, building energy efficiency standards. Of course, information cam paigns are important: how to behave dur ing the heat, how to protect yourself from ticks, etc. For rural areas, such priority actions are obvious as the improvement of the forest fire monitoring system and a certain impact on agriculture: restructur ing, changing crops… — What kind of help can cities and regions receive that decide to develop their own plan for active environmental development? Mariya Faloleyeva: When the cities face the need to develop such plans, they need support and guidance. This is es pecially true for the mysterious climate adaptation, which no one knows any thing about. But this is normal, this is not only in Belarus. Therefore, in the framework of the Green Cities project, we have developed recommendations that specifically relate to the climatic part. We tried as much as possible to explain to city administrations how to collect information, from what sources, how this process should be coordinat ed. We give in our applications a large number of examples on climate adapta tion that can be used in our conditions. Vladimir Rak: As for the energy part, we tried to automate the process as

We have accurate calculations and detailed plans, which may include dozens, if not hundreds, of various activities in the field of active environmental development, including the activities for individual organizations Vladimir Rak

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ecology much as possible. Seven sources of sta tistics that are recorded in our tool are enough. We developed it as part of the Green Cities. Namely: there is an auto matic conversion into megawatt hours, calculation of greenhouse gas emissions, automatic aggregation in the necessary sectors. On the basis of this information, a plan of possible measures is formed. We also developed a special question naire, which the city administrations should send to the district enterprises. From them they receive information on planned activities, and the program al ready automatically calculates the effect on energy conservation and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Now we want to translate this pro gram into English and send it to the Covenant of Mayors office. Perhaps, if not all, then some elements of this pro gram can be used not only in Belarus. — What can do the cities that do not participate in the Covenant of Mayors? Perhaps they are already implementing the activities that someone has planed for active environmental development? Vladimir Rak: Practice shows that those cities that are active are also sig natories to the Covenant of Mayors, the Mayors for Economic Growth initiative, and other international initiatives. Pas sive cities, as a rule, do not participate anywhere. In fact, they have no chance

Comment by Ivan Filyutich, energy efficiency expert of the Green Cities project: According to experts of the Green Cities projects, a key achievement that representatives of Belarusian cities-participants in the Covenant of Mayors can be proud of is a change in approaches to sustainable urban planning. It was within the framework of this initiative that, for the first time, cities began to develop long-term comprehensive infrastructure plans that integrate indicators of energy efficiency, the environment and the economy. But it is not enough to develop such a plan. It must be linked to strategic goals and objectives at the national level. The mechanisms for its implementation should be developed. In this regard, our project is actively working on the development of mechanisms for the implementation of such initiatives: issues of green financing, sustainable procurement, monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as increasing expertise at the local level. to get additional financing for develop ment. Participation in the Covenant of Mayors is always an advantage when some European grants are distributed.

There are certain contests of the Cove nant of Mayors program in which nonsignatories simply cannot participate. So the advantages are obvious. Mariya Faloleyeva: Active cities are now taking those first steps that sooner or later everyone will have to take. In any case, the climate is changing and somehow it will have to be reacted to. The sooner you start, the easier and cheaper it will cost. This is important for local administrations to understand. In the cities that are just beginning to develop climate adaptation plans, they ask me a question: will we be allocated money for the implementation of this plan? We are talking primarily about ex ternal grants and investments, because there are no such national financing programs in Belarus so far, as in many other countries. I frankly answer that I do not know whether they will get mon ey or not, but they will certainly not be allocated anything if they do not have a plan. All European financial institu tions that allocate funds for sustainable development, green development, want to see what the city plans for the future. Moreover, according to new standards, international donors and investment funds want to see a climate assessment of projects. Even those that, it may seem, are not directly related to green devel opment, for example, the construction of roads, other infrastructure. If the dis trict has such an assessment and plan, then, of course, it is in a better position. So cities not participating in the Cov enant of Mayors should think about it. Vladimir Rak: I will give a fresh ex ample from the neighbors to illustrate the words of Mariya. At the EU inter national conference, Germany pro posed allocating funds to Ukraine to implement measures to adapt to climate change. Only just show what you are ready for. In Ukraine, a letter was sent to all administrations ask ing them to send their proposals. So those cities that had climate plans re ceived funding in the total amount of $ 30 million. By Vladimir Mikhaylov

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context

Money for wind About $40 million dollars of foreign investment has been attracted to Belarus for the wind power plant construction project

ur country is one step closer to building the largest wind power plant and achieving the goal of intro ducing renewable power sources until 2030. The Turkish company Gurish Concentron & Engineer ing Co. lns, a world famous developer of environmentally friendly engineering solutions, was chosen to invest in the construction of 25 MW wind power plants near the village of Veleskovichi in the Liozno District of Vitebsk Region. After the approval of all the necessary documents, the agreement was signed on August 30, according to which the total amount of investment in the new wind power plant is to be about 40 million U. S. dollars. The project of international technical assistance “Removing barriers to wind power development in the Republic of Belarus” is implemented by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Envi ronment with the support of the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environment Facility. Construction of the wind power plant is scheduled to begin in 2020, after the investor has developed detailed project documentation. After completion of the construction, the wind farm “Ve leshkovichi” will become the largest wind power produc er in Belarus, which will supply green power to more than 20 thousand households in the area. The operation of the wind farm over the next 20 years is expected to reduce more than 500 thousand tons of CO2 emissions. Five new jobs will be created to operate and maintain the facility. The con struction of the wind farm will also provide jobs for local construc tion companies and equipment suppliers. Meanwhile, as the project experts note, the current pace of development of renewable power sourc es in our country is quite slow. At the beginning of 2019, their share in the gross consumption of fuel and power resources was 6.2%. Currently, 96 wind turbines with a total capacity of 100.95 MW are operating all over the country. By Margarita Drozdova

This fragile ozone layer From 2020, it will no longer be possible to import ozone-depleting substances into Belarus, and from 2030 to use the equipment that works with their help

he ozone layer protects the Earth from the harmful effects of ultraviolet solar radiation and maintains optimal temperature conditions on the planet. However, a person significantly affects its condi tion. As early as the last century, the ozone layer began to deplete, and one of the main reasons for this is the active use of chemicals that contain chromium or bromine. Belarus was one of the first to sign the Vienna Conven tion for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Mon treal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. In 2001, the law on the protection of the ozone layer was adopted in the country. — 197 countries have acceded to the Montreal Proto col. It regulates 114 different chemicals, more than 50% of them have already been removed from use, — said Na talya Klimenko, a consultant at the Department of En vironmental Impact Management, Climate Change and Expertise at the Ministry of Natural Resources. — Ozone-depleting substances have never been pro duced in our country, so our task today is to prevent their im port. We are also working with other countries on the removal of the last group of such substances — hydrochlorofluorocar bons. By 2020, there should be none of them in Belarus. The specialist added that by 2030, the equipment operat ing on ozone-depleting substances will have gone out of use. Meanwhile, the reserves made up to 2020, or recirculated recovered substances are to be used for its refueling. Experts say that natural refrigerants will be the best alternative. — In accordance with the legislation, the Ministry of Natural Resources and its territorial bodies are entrusted with monitoring the implementation of the Montreal Pro tocol. Since 1987, the use of ozone-depleting substances has been reduced by 99%, — said Natalya Klimenko. — We conduct an inventory of equipment that works on such substances once every three years. For example, as of the beginning of 2018, about 2.5 thousand units re mained, it was used by about 300 organizations. By Ekaterina Titova

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sb.by

Environment

The descendants of ancient aurochses settled down on the banks of the Pripyat

Aurochses have returned to Polesye

he last aurochs disappeared from the face of the Earth in 1627. In the twentieth century, attempts were made to revive the lost population of ancient bulls. This is how an aurochs-like cow appeared, which looks very similar to its ancestors. Now it is possible to see these animals in the vicinities of Turov. They got here thanks to the project of the UNDP and the Global Environment Facility “Sustainable Man agement of Forest and Wetlands to Achieve Multiple Benefits”. The program is aimed at preserv ing biodiversity and will help solve the problem of over

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growing pastures. It will also undoubtedly attract tourists to Polesye. The descendants of legendary bulls were seen by our correspondent. Once Polesye was inhabited by entire herds of aurochses. Floodplain meadows of the Pripyat were their home territory. But hunting and diseases destroyed the ancestors of cattle. As a result, only legends, handwritten evidence and archeological finds have survived to our time. By the way, one of them is presented in the exposition “Ancient Turov” of the local museum of regional studies. Here, un der the glass, a huge horn of a primitive wild bull is kept, which was found during the excavations. I was allowed to hold it for a photo shoot — my hands nearly fell off under the weight of the rarity.

Environment  Heck bull is a hardy breed of domestic cattle. These cattle are the result of an attempt made by the Heck brothers in Germany in the 1920s‑1930s to breed back the extinct aurochs. After the Second World War, the project was forgotten because the top of the Nazi Reich had supported it. The idea was brought back to life 60 years later. Nowadays, there are thousands of such animals in Europe, which naturally solve the problem of overgrowing meadows and wetlands. It is also topical for Belarus. as soon as we get closer, they start off the ground again. They rush to the barn un der the leadership of a female. Now it is clear who is in charge there. The leader slows down near the photographer for a few seconds. Farm worker Vasily Shostak relieves tension, explaining: — They look fierce. But not aggres sive at all. Although, of course, we try not to disturb them. They are wild ani mals. They don’t need any fuss. — Do you think they are used to it? — I wonder. — In general, yes, — the worker turns fresh golden hay with forks. — Hay and green grass are eaten well. Just add more and more. But the corn is not honored yet. It seems that they have not had this kind of food in their diet be fore. They set their own daily routine. At 6 o’clock in the morning they go out of the barn into the aviary as if by com mand, and in the evening, when it gets dark, they return in an organized man ner. They have complete freedom of movement, limited only by the fence,

because the herd is still in quaran tine. We will let them go in a couple of months or so. Is it true, Ilyinichna? Olga Bobrik nods affirmatively. Yes, after the quarantine foster care, au rochses will go to the floodplain mead ows of the Pripyat. The mission of the aurochses is to enjoy their life, “mowing out” the surrounding vegetation. Ac cording to scientists, wild ungulates suc cessfully cope with this, thus they restore the biodiversity of meadows and save many species of birds from extinction. In short, they work like live mowers. — By the way, in the same flood plain zone we graze our “limousines” — French cows — Olga Ilyinichna shows with her hand towards the meadows. — They eat up every bit. Even cow-parsnip. Now, aurochses will make themselves at home on the Pripyat banks, almost like five centuries ago. Of course, when we let them out into the wild, we will look after them. As they returned to us, we want them to take root completely. By Violeta Dralyuk sb.by

After the excursion I can’t wait to see the aurochs-like cows, which should be very similar to their mighty ances tors. I am going to the farm Turovs china JSC. Acting chief zootechnician Olga Bobrik tries to prepare us carefully for the meeting, showing the way to the place of residence of animals. — They don’t look as powerful as in book pictures. You know that au rochses were extinct centuries ago. The current generation is already the work of European geneticists. We got a herd of Heck’s aurochs-like cows. The gift for the area is symbolic. Just think: au rochses have returned to Turov. The outskirts of the village, a few kilometers from the city, face the forest. A large dark spot can be seen in the open area adjacent to the farm. When a car ar rives, it instantly moves into the depths of the walking area. The closer we get, the farther the animals go. The herd in cludes 18 heads. Males are black, females are lighter, some with a touch of red. They cannot be called giants. But the horns are great. The bulls have cres cent moon horns, the length of which is sure to be a good meter. Cows have con siderably smaller horns, but they look no less threatening. The kiddies get under the mom’s legs — there are several calves in the herd. When animals get a little used to us, we can get closer. You can see tufted heads, white noses and jet-black eyes. However,

The aurochs horn found during excavations. Photo in the Turov Museum of Local Lore.

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Society

To help means to understand A human needs a human — this principle should be the basis for integrated medical and social assistance at home, the national model of which is currently being developed in Belarus. According to the estimates of the Belarusian Red Cross Society, more than 660 thousand people need such an approach, which amounts 7% of the population, and taking into account the demographic situation, the annual growth may reach 1.5%.

eople with disabilities and the elderly, families caring for bedridden relatives are in the center of attention of the complex medical and social approach. Health Minister Vladimir Karanik emphasizes: there is no ideal model in the world, each country de velops its own, based on available re sources. In our medical sphere, we have created a geriatric service, third age schools in polyclinics, more than 2 thousand nursing beds. Social servic es, in turn, provide the possibility of in patient care, hospitalization and home care. There is a system of social state or der, delegating the provision of services to other organizations, including public ones. The Red Cross is notable for hav ing its own nursing service. However, the growing demand for regular, clear medical and social assis tance at home, which would improve the quality of life of elderly people and people with disabilities, as well as their families, requires clear approaches: communication between participants, standards of work and training of those interested. Taking into account

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the creation of strategies for the ben efit of older citizens in our country, their development would be timely. At the initiative of the Belarusian Red Cross Society, this topic was discussed yesterday in Minsk with the partici pation of international experts. Who needs such assistance? What contribu tion can family members make? Yes, in our country, as well as in many other post-Soviet countries, able-bodied children are obliged to take care of el derly parents. But is it always possible for them to bear this burden, is there enough time and skill to care for, say, a bedridden relative with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease after a stroke? Who will teach the basics, who will “release them from duty” when physical and emotional resources are running out? How to evaluate what kind of help and how often do they need it? Will the army of professionals be able to help? How to prepare these personnel? The answers can be provided by studying the world’s best practices. According to Valentin Rusovich, co ordinator of public health programs at the WHO country office in Belarus, we

need to correct the legislation and the national concept, sustainable financing and compensation for outpatient treat ment. Plus 100% access to central heat ing, water supply, sewerage and rear rangement of hospital beds (for example, we have 203 nursing beds for 100 thou sand people now, and in Sweden there are 1,250…). In the long term it will not only improve the health of the elderly, reduce the number of hospitalizations and allow people of the advanced age to live in their usual conditions for as long as possible, but will also give an op portunity to their families to save their jobs, as well as contribute to the crea tion of new ones and save them from catastrophic expenditures. How exactly this approach will be implemented in our country is yet to be determined by the parties concerned — health care and social protection systems, public or ganizations. But there is no doubt that this step is necessary. Already now in our country there are 2.3 million people over the working age and 900 thousand people over 70. The trend will intensify, and it requires a rapid response. By Yuliya Vasilishina

Charity

Happy together The activists of the Public Association “Egida” have been saving the lives of homeless animals for more than ten years. This organization, which is known outside the country, gives, as they say, a second life to hundreds of pets and promotes its humane ideas at the legislative level. It also celebrates World Animal Day, which traditionally takes place on October 4 and has been celebrated in the country since 2007. Is a man a friend of a dog? Of course, today “Egida” is not the only animal protection association in Belarus, which is not indifferent to the fate of homeless animals. There are up to thirty such organizations in Minsk, and in total — about 50 in the country. But 12 years ago, “Egida” tried to defend the rights of animals almost alone, as few people in Belarus thought about it then. Now the organization has 11 perma nent employees and hundreds of volun teers. Everyone has their own “piece” of work: someone is responsible for helping the disabled animals, someone is respon sible for sterilization. There are volun teers promoting humane attitude, some of them organize meetings in kinder gartens, schools, universities, they ar range charity concerts and mass actions, helping to meet animals and their future owners. The legal department in “Egida” is also high-powered: all interested per sons are consulted on the protection of animal rights, are helped to submit ap plications for administrative and crimi nal cases, if there are reasons for that. A few years ago, thanks to the efforts of animal protection organizations and, in particular, “Egida”, the draft law “On the

treatment of animals”, which has been under discussion since 2015, was sup plemented with a paragraph according to which chipping of pets will be a man datory procedure. Alas, it is not popular with us yet, although it can be done in any veterinary clinic: an injection in the shoulder — and a rice-grain micro chip is implanted. Chipping costs about $ 20, is done once a lifetime, does no harm, but the pet gets its individual number, which is databased and open to all. By the way, chipping is mandatory in Western Europe. As well as sterilization and vac cination of four-footed animals. Thanks to these measures, some EU countries have solved the problem of stray ani mals. The only place in the world where there are no stray dogs and cats at all is the Netherlands. This has been achieved through mass sterilization, legalization of various forms of punishment for ani mal abuse and high animal taxes. And in Germany, there are no stray cats and dogs in the streets either: there are state programs for mass sterilization of stray animals. And in general, the law is most ly on the animals’ side. There is a fine of 25 thousand Euros for intentional inflic tion of harm to animals in Germany. And in Latvia you can be imprisoned for

Veronica Hantsevich, the head of the society "Egida", with her friend Bonnie

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Charity 4 years for that. In Italy, a person who dishoused the pet will be punished with a fine of 10 thousand euros, and can be put in custody. The measure is strict, but understandable. After all, we are forever responsible, according to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, for those we have tamed. The animal, however, cannot claim its own rights. That’s why in Sweden, for example, an official profession of animal activist has appeared. It is also illegal to leave a dog at home for more than five hours. No one to look after it? There is a dog day care centre or a special hotel. And in France back in 1976 it was recog nized that the animal has a soul. In Belarus, too, as they say, the habitat of pets is being harmonized. And the al ready mentioned draft law “On the treat ment of animals” stipulates the norm of responsibility for abandoning the ani mal. Relations with animals are regulated by the Rules of Pet Care, adopted in 2001. And four years ago cruelty to animals was criminalized: one can be imprisoned for up to one year. But while such problems are being discussed, public animal organizations are already operating today. “To adopt positive experience of oth er countries and introduce new rules of humane attitude to animals in Belarus, this is what all public organizations of an imal protection aspire to,” says the head of the society “Egida” Veronica Hantsevich. — Now we cooperate with the Pol ish Animal Welfare Foundation “Czarna Owca Pana Kota”. There is a provision in the law that allows animal lovers to send all their taxes to a specific shelter for ani mals; in Poland, state animal shelters have been set up. We have regular contacts with our colleagues in Riga — with the shelters with veterinary service. Sterilization, cas tration and other light operations are car ried out there. We cooperate with the Ani mal Protection Fund of the French movie star Brigitte Bardot. By the way, its repre sentative came to Minsk this summer: she helped to promote new rules for the main tenance of pets, shared her experience. We are planning a visit of a delegation of US vets to Belarus: they will hold master

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classes on large-scale sterilization and castration. A similar project was imple mented in India: within 5 days American doctors sterilized about 500 stray cats and dogs. There was also a joint project with Swedish volunteers. In the winter of 2015, for example, we held a large-scale cam

us the photos in which they are happy to gether. In general, it is common practice for residents of Western European coun tries to take an animal from afar. They have animal rescue programmes in other coun tries where the situation with the homeless animals is quite complicated.

Veronica with Brigitte Olua, representative of the Brigitte Bardot Fund

On the ferry to Stockholm - to the new owners

paign to find homes for our cats. Volun teers from Stockholm joined in. As a result, 50 dogs found their own home, and 5 of them — ordinary Belarusian mongrels — took a ferry to the capital of Sweden. Now they are living there, and the owners send

Animal rights Officially, there are no animal shel ters in Minsk yet — only a temporary holding facility. This is a state establish ment “Fauna of the city”. Other major

Charity cities in Belarus also have such facili ties. According to the instructions, the animals, are to be kept there for 5 days, after that comes euthanasia. As a rule, they get to the point in two ways: either their owners hand them over, or a special brigade catches them in the streets of the

Valentina Zhdanovich

Now Peony is always clean

How good feels saved Jacek at home!

Raccoon Poncho became a pet

city. Alas, if an unchipped pet, let’s say, slipped a leash and ran away, then five days later it may be dead. Even if, accord ing to the Rules of Pet Care, it has a col lar, badge and muzzle. In district centers animals can be killed by electric current,

sometimes they are shot. By the way, Western Europeans have already given up this way of “solving the problem”. There are terrible cases when an animal gets into the pit of a cattle burial site. This case was witnessed by the members of “Egida” in 2017. “We received a call from Logoysk,” Veronica says, “and were told that a dog barking is heard from the deep pit, where the remains of dead cows are usually dumped. We immediately went and rescued two dogs. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get one of them to the veterinary clinic alive. And the sec ond one was saved. For two years now, Peony has been living in a loving family and has become so beautiful! And when he was taken out — the smell…That’s why it was called Peony. We used to wash him so much!. For a week, perhaps, sev eral times a day. The dog was gray-greenbrown. And in two months it turned out that the dog was white!” There are hundreds of dogs and cats in the state establishment “Fauna of the city”. They are fed there, but veteri nary help is not provided. Profits from paid public services on “trapping” go to this very trapping in the future. And treatment of four-footed animals lies on the shoulders of volunteers who come to the “Fauna”. Some homeless animals are lucky: they are taken to another home… “Love makes the world go around” In some civilized countries, local au thorities have initiated the installation of feeders and warm animal houses in urban streets and recreation parks. Such care for animals can be witnessed, for example, in Turkey, Poland, Rome and the Greek island of Rhodes. We also have enough enthusiasts. The first cabin for wintering cats appeared in Orsha last year. Unknown people made it out of planks, and inside they spread straw. Then the animal house was built in Kob rin. And in Minsk, a friend said, the guy built a small house for cats in the yard of his apartment building, and soon it was demolished by the employees of Housing Maintenance Service. Appar ently, some of the residents did not like the fact that the animals would live next

door and complained. Probably, modern urbanists still need to “mature” in order to make such neighbourship possible. There is such an example. One of the doctors at the Nordin Medical Center bought a small private house near Ro doshkovichi near Minsk especially for homeless cats. He told the patient that there were about 20 furry creatures liv ing there. Yes, there are also such devo tees. And Anton Igonin, a Belarusian, a resident of St. Petersburg, became famous for building houses for stray animals and he made a profitable busi ness. Everything began with a desire to help a homeless cat Vasya, who settled on the porch of Anton’s house, survive the winter. The guy made her a house, which Vasya liked. And Anton had an idea to build such houses. He set up a website, posted his works and — it all started: orders began to come thick and fast. Some people asked for an “elite cot tage” to be built for their pets, and others asked for a shelter for the homeless. The activists of “Egida” society built their first shelter called “The House of Saved Souls”. It is 50 km away from Minsk, it is only for dogs, about three dozen of them live there. There is also a second rescue house — a gift from a female volunteer, where cats and dogs live together. There are 4 rooms in it, and crates for those who can live in kennels are placed all over the territory of the site, as well as housing for cats. “Neighbors, of course, sometimes complain: a dog bark ing is a hindrance. And what are they do ing there, they think. Maybe they make minced meat out of animals and sell it on the black market? Yes, people have a lot of prejudices, laughs Veronica. — There are no exact addresses of shelters in the pub lic domain, so that people couldn’t leave “surprises” like a box of puppies.” There was a case, she recalls, when a tied bag with kittens was thrown over the fence and… right to the dogs. The vol unteers noticed it in good time, so the tragedy did not happen. But if there is a sincere desire to help — there is enough work in the houses for everyone: every day you need to clean the crates, feed, беларусь. belarus 2019

Charity treat, walk every dog on a leash in the morning and evening. — It has to be socialized, Veronica says. — We have 4–5 hour shifts, and there are two volunteers in the cabin at the same time. — Of course, there is no room for everyone, we can not take all of them. And every day, there are calls from all over Belarus, sometimes dozens of them a day. Not everyone understands how our houses are organized. There are single dogs, they don’t get along with anyone, they need a separate crate. There are wild, cowardly. We can’t, for example, have a lot of male dogs living together. Although they are castrated, but their characters are “male”: they compete with each other. Every 2–3 months volunteers hold actions in the parks of the city, on large grounds: they bring about a hundred ani mals and during the day look for owners, a new house for them. They tell about pets, give an opportunity to touch, talk and walk together. In August 2019, after a regular campaign, 60 animals found the house. Such meetings are good because future owners can see the pets with their own eyes. But still there are some nuances: If a person wants “that very cat” simply be cause it is furry — we do not give it away at once. First, we talk to the potential owner, find out what conditions our animal will live in.. If, for example, a dog is going to live in a kennel in the village, it cannot be a small dog, which is accustomed to liv ing in a city apartment. Or, say, not every cat will get along with small children. Sometimes people want to take a second

Timur is still looking for his home

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The family replenished thanks to a charity event

dog. Will the animals get along with each other? Sometimes people want to take a puppy and raise it, but don’t understand that the puppy is not accustomed to the toilet, it hasn’t developed biological clock, that is, it confuses day and night. And to be indignant about it “making noise at night and preventing from sleep” is stupid. In short, we try to minimize the risk of a second return. It’s stressful for both pets and us: we immediately take someone new to replace the old one.

How much does animal hair cost? In protection and support of home less animals, “Egida” organizes charity concerts. So, after one of them called “Rock for cats” — it was held in Minsk shopping center “Galeria” last winter — the volunteers raised $500. And as far as I understand from the conversation with Veronica, there are a lot of peo ple who are not indifferent. Therefore, the organization does not hasn’t had any particular financial difficulties yet. Most often, people are ready to provide financial assistance to enthusiasts: they transfer money to “Egida”’s account. Not everyone has a car to drive dogs and cats, apartments where they can be temporar ily kept. And “Egida” itself provides fi nancial and informational assistance to Wildlife Rescue Centre “Sirin” — it is in

a private area near Dzerzhinsk. By the way, how do raccoons, foxes, owls, crows, swans get there? — They are brought in from the ani mal farm, many animals are hit by cars on the roads.. Someone, for example, found a raccoon in the forest, took it home, played with it, and released…There are many such cases, Veronica says. “Egida” has signed contracts with many public and private veterinary clin ics in the city: “Volunteers bring animals, they are treated, at the end of the month we are charged the amount, and we pay the bill. Everything is cashless, there is no cash. Although there are situations when people trust and give cash. For example, sheets and screws are neces sary for the surgery on the spine. They are made only in normal, “human” in dustries. And we don’t have a license for electronic transfer of such sums, as well as for some “human” medicines, which may also be needed, for example, by a dog. Then we pay in cash, but we keep strict accounts: when, how much, what for, what was spent, what was bought with this money, a copy of the receipt… Some volunteers buy medicines them selves and give it to us”.

Who are these people Veronica Hantsevich is a lawyer by education and works as a manager in

Charity a private veterinary clinic. By the way, such institutions, as well as hospitals, are open 24 hours a day. There is always a need for them, holidays are no excep tion. Sometimes a cat falls out of a win dow, or a dog breaks its paw, or vomiting or diarrhea suddenly start… The owners, Veronica says, are often in a state of shock when they arrive, and are ready for all kind of treatment: just save their pet! And some, on the contrary, are even afraid to give a pill. Veronica examines the patient, soothes the owner, sends both to the right specialist. By the way, she has no special education. But as she says, to be with the four-footed animals almost a decade and a half day and night, to communicate with them, looking “eye to eye” — this experience is quite enough for work. — 8 years ago, I did not have any knowledge of animals. And now I can put in an IV, provide first aid, tell one disease from another, to determine by appearance what to do, and so on. I can catch any dog and come to terms with it. I wonder: who are the most frequent patients in the vet and who are the rare ones? Of course, mostly cats and dogs are brought in. And also turtles, lizards, raccoons, ferrets… And even crocodiles were brought from the zoo to be X‑rayed. Snakes, rabbits, hedgehogs, chanterelles, rats were also treated. And also birds: parrots, gulls, crows, “winged” spar rows, at which a child can throw a stone. A kind-hearted person saw a dropped chick, picked it up, brought it to the clinic and paid for the treatment. In gen eral, there are a lot of stories in Veronica Hantsevich’s work. Many of the volunteers in “Egida” are quite wealthy. In addition to students and lawyers, there are heads of their own firms and companies, translators, design ers, directors… Many of them get ac quainted and even create families thanks to a common cause, meet on holidays, which are arranged by like-minded peo ple. Veronica herself met her husband in “Egida”, now they have four dogs at home. — It is a myth that lonely retired women, unfulfilled people are busy with kittens and dogs. Our people just want to

help someone else because of their spirit ual qualities, and they have the physical or financial means to do it. When I am told that it is stupid to save animals, when so many people are dying in the world, I an swer: to each their own. It will not be pos sible to save the whole world — but why not save someone? I don’t have a weekend off, I don’t make any profit from my ac tivities. But I am very satisfied with what I am doing. Believe me, it’s very nice when you pick up a neglected hatrack in the street, and then “it” turns into a mischie vous, funny and handsome. When you find a hit, wounded animal on the road, do all your best for it — and suddenly one morning it got up and started running. It’s a great joy! By the way, we have vol unteers who are professionally engaged in canis therapy. With specially trained dogs they go to children with complex diagno ses like ICP, autism, to orphanages. Dogs teach children! And it is proved scientifi cally that after such lessons the children are more open to contact. So by our activ ity we help not only animals.

People are like animals Veronica is sure that there are more good people. But she believes it’s neces sary to keep trying to change people’s attitude towards animals. Therefore, “Egida” actively supports mandatory sterilization, chipping and vaccination. She explains: — People don’t understand many problems. Why should you vaccinate a

kitten which lives at home and doesn’t go anywhere? Because some viral dis eases can be brought on your feet, on your shoes. Why is it necessary to have a net on the window? Perhaps your cat hasn’t been sitting on the window sill for 5 years, but next year it will get inter ested in something there, and may fall from the 12th floor. And if your dog sud denly slips a leash, scared by something, and later brings you litter? At best, the litter will go to a shelter, and at worst, boxes with puppies will be placed near garbage cans or just thrown directly into the garbage disposal unit. There are a lot of variants. There are drowned, bur ied alive puppies and these are not the most terrible thing. It’s funny and sad to hear: “My cat should definitely give birth because she needs to feel like a mother.” “Animals don’t have such instincts! No animal wants to become a mother!” Yes, it is impossible not to notice animals around us. They are, they are alive… They teach us to be caring. Our conversation lasted for a long time. And ended on a positive note: maybe we will learn to love… We also remembered the book by the English writer-zoologist Gerald Darrell “Kan garoo Route”, which says that, unlike us, animals can not achieve autonomy. They don’t have members of parliament to complain to. They cannot even force their unions to go on strike and demand better conditions. Their future, their very existence, is in our hands. By Alisa Gungor

Members of "Egida" near the "House of Saved Souls"

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Taste of alternative

Big world in a cup of coffee Over a hundred coffee houses in Belarus celebrated International Coffee Day. The holiday was held in Minsk, Gomel, Grodno, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Brest, Pinsk, Slutsk, Bobruisk, Kobrin

W We were invited to a Minsk coffee house to taste different sorts of coffee. That evening gathered a lot of guests in the coffee house “Kofta”. Among young people there were cou ples of respectable age. As Irina Fe dorova told us (the owner of the coffee house), the couple decided to celebrate the Day of Older Persons with a cup of delicious coffee. They were pleas antly surprised that this day coincided with International Coffee Day. For those who do not know, the Day of Older Persons was established at the initiative of the United Nations in December 1990. At first, this date was celebrated in Western Europe, then in America, and in the late 1990s already

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around the world. By the way, on Oc tober 1, various countries host various festivals organized by associations for the protection of the rights of older peo ple, conferences and congresses. Public organizations and foundations organ ize various events on this day. However, the International Coffee Day is still a young holiday. As we know, there was no single date for celebrating this day in the world community, and only in 2014 the International Coffee Asso ciation, which includes 75 countries, decided on the official date. In 2015, International Coffee Day was first cel ebrated in its official status. According to the organizers (http://www.aif.by), on this day more than 100 coffee houses in

10 cities of Belarus prepared special of fers, training and entertainment pro grams. On this day, master-classes in alter native way coffee brewing, coffee quests, Latte Art Battle, holiday sets, coffee discounts of up to 50%, cappings and tastings were arranged for coffee lovers across the country. The organizing team of the large-scale festival Coffee Fest Be larus united the country in a large coffee flash mob #coffeedaybelarus. It is good that coffee culture is devel oping in Belarus. — International Coffee Day is a great opportunity to talk about your love of coffee and share it with others. We take pride in the fact that it is the second

Taste of alternative

Callout: The most avid coffee lovers are Finns. In Finland, there are 12 kg of coffee per person per year. Also among the leaders is Norway (9.9 kg per capita), Denmark (8.7 kg), Sweden (8.2 kg). Italians, by the way, consume about 5.9 kg of coffee per person per year. (udf.by) In Belarus, 59.7% of residents prefer tea, 40.3% — coffee Workshop for youth

year that Belarus has become part of this holiday. Let’s celebrate it with the whole country, go to coffee houses and discover the world in a cup of delicious coffee! — said Marina Voskresenskaya, founder of the Coffee Fest Belarus, na tional coordinator of the International Coffee Association in Belarus, in her in terview with Argumenty i Fakty news paper. She announced that in 2020 in Minsk as many as three coffee events will be taking place: in February — a large-scale Coffee Fest Belarus 2020, in April — Coffee Fest Belarus. EXPO

Each gram is important for alternative brewing of coffee. There are many different nuances.

2020, in July — the first festival of craft coffee, gourmet coffee. Irina Fedorova told us that the “new coffee year” begins on October 1, when coffee harvesting and sales by coffee traders start. Perhaps this date was also chosen because the first coffee festivi ties were held in Japan on October 1 in 1983 at the initiative of the local coffee association. Let’s get back to “Kofta.” As it turned out, the guests that evening were invited to observe how different varieties of cof fee could be brewed with the help of al ternative methods and then, of course, to taste it, and also to see the differ ence, i. e. how much a drink prepared, say, in chemex, differs from the coffee brewed in an aeropress, or pourover, and also try to describe gustatory sen sations. The guests settled in a semicircle at the counter so that the process itself could be seen. Veronica Najafova, chefbarista, invited from the coffee house “Manufactura”, is in the role of “alche mist”. She is a quality control special ist in the production of freshly roasted coffee “Manufacturarosters”, a coach in the training center # manufactory_Lab. While Veronica is making coffee, the owner of the coffee house tells us about her. It turns out that Veronica has a sev

en-year experience of barista and loves her profession. She participated in the main Barista Championship in Bela rus in 2018. Irina says that this cham pionship is the most difficult and most prestigious of all coffee competitions in the country. The difficulty is that with in fifteen minutes a participant needs to make 4 espresso, 4 cappuccino and 4 haute drinks. The haute drink should reveal the taste of espresso from an unex pected side due to the original recipe de veloped by the participants themselves. Each participant is judged by 4 sensory, 2 technical and 1 main judge. The judges of the Championship are SCA certified judges, professionals in the coffee in dustry in Belarus, Russia and Europe. Irina has no doubt: Veronica will be able to honorably represent Belarus at the World Barista Championship. — Alternative ways of making cof fee is a fresh trend from the world of the bar industry, — Veronica begins her story. — What is it for? An alternative, all the baristas know about it, “glorifies” the natural characteristics of coffee — its aroma, acidity, density, sweetness…She speaks brightly, enthusiastically, emo tionally and tells in detail about each method of brewing coffee. Moreover, the technical details are perceived as a fascinating story. Everything dealing беларусь. belarus 2019

Taste of alternative with coffee brewing devices is new to us. Next to her is Lisa, Alesya and Pavel, the baristas of “Kofta”. The girls still have little experience, but espresso and other types of coffee, according to the hostess, are already brewed perfectly — Undoubtedly, you know, — Ve ronica continues, — coffee is a popular and healthy drink. It invigorates, ener gizes, helps not only to concentrate, but also to relax, warms and refreshes. Cof fee brings people closer to each other, it is one of the most important parts of socialization in the life of a modern person. Look, you all are smiling now,

on the scales, pours water into a teapot with a thin gooseneck, puts coffee… The stylized design of the devices delights the eye, and the ease of use is also obvious. — See how the V60 funnel fits nicely the palm of your hand, — says Veroni ca. — V60, pourover, hario — these are the names for the same way of making coffee. It became popular in 2010 after an article about it was published in The New York Times. It had been invented almost a hundred years before. Cooking a pourover is a real ritual called the “cof fee ceremony”, however, you can learn

This is aeropress

Funnel is also called a Pourover and Hario

are in good mood, because you are looking forward to a drink that you will taste. It seems that coffee is also a kind of conductor of emotions, and coffee cul ture itself is a rich and unknown world! That’s why I will introduce you to alter native methods of brewing it. They are meant to reveal the versatility of coffee taste palette… The hands of our vis-a‑vis as if are flying over the devices, let’s call them like this. They look like dishes from a chemical laboratory, and the girl herself, I repeat, is an alchemist: all the manipu lations are performed so easily, quickly, and naturally. She grinds coffee, weighs

this ritual quite easily. Pourover in Eng lish means “to pour over”. Hario is after the name of a Japanese company manu facturing accessories for this method. V60 is because, as you see, the funnel is similar to the Latin letter V, and the angle between its walls is 60°. Insert a thin paper filter into the funnel, pour coarsely ground coffee and gently pour hot water from the kettle. But not boil ing water. The drink made in this way is transparent, without sediment, with a delicate taste, in which all its notes and nuances are clearly felt. That is exactly the kind of coffee Kenya, brewed in a funnel, happened

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to be: clear, clean, transparent. Lisa and Alesia poured the drink into special small transparent glasses for tasting. According to Irina, there is much more caffeine in this method of preparation than in es presso coffee. Therefore, we savor aro matic coffee bit by bit: after all, it is even ing time. Then we drink water so that the taste buds are cleaned for the next portion of coffee brewed already in the aeropress. Further our attention switches to aeropress. The device was designed in 2005 by American Alan Adler and manufactured by Aerobie Inc. Accord ing to Veronica, there are many recipes

Lisa, Pavel, Alesya and the main barista on the tasting day — Veronica

for this device, and these are the origi nal recipes that win at different cham pionships. Someone puts less coffee, someone more, someone has a larger grinding, someone smaller. There is no specific regulation. In an aeropress, cof fee is poured into the upper cylinder, it is stirred for 10 seconds, and then, in 10–20 seconds, the finished drink is pressed through the filter into the lower tank. The drink is strong, almost like an espresso, and very fragrant. And this is, perhaps, the main advantage. The only “minus” is that coffee turns out to be a bit unclear, in contrast to the transpar ency of the drink prepared in the funnel.

Taste of alternative The guests’ questions followed: does the water matter?…Of course! One of the guests, hydrogeologist Vladimir Shi manovich, explains: the presence of mag nesium and calcium enhances the taste of coffee and is useful for general physiol ogy. Veronica, who rejoiced at the opin ion of a professional, says that one should brew coffee not with distilled water, but the one enriched with mineral salts. — The third device is chemex. Its design is very simple. It is made of bo rosilicate glass and “strapped” with a leather belt. A paper or metal filter is also inserted into the chemex. Water is

poured from a teapot with a thin goose neck, it takes about 5 minutes. The out put is an excellent taste, with a thick aro ma, a transparent drink enriched with oxygen. Look up on Wikipedia, — Ve ronica recommends, — you will get in teresting information there: the device was invented in 1941 by the American chemist Peter Schlumbom. The scientist connected the glass flask of Erlenmeyer to a laboratory glass funnel with a rim of wood and leather. The device gained popularity mainly due to its design — a chemical flask with a large funnel. By the way, the first slogan of the chemex advertising campaign was: “Brew coffee

like a chemist.” The inventor himself, who was demonstrating the work of his invention, became the advertising personality of the campaign. In addi tion, he installed a gilded chemex on the front door of his cadillac as a mascot. Chemex was recognized as an outstand ing object of American design and has been exhibited at the New York Muse um of Modern Art since 1944. Veronica also told us about the oldest and most spectacular of the alternative ways of brewing coffee in the so-called siphon. It was invented by madam Vas sieux in 1841. We immediately looked at

fee in different devices. That was what they were successfully, not without excitement, doing under the guidance of the “Kofta” barista and Veronica: they ground coffee, weighed it on the scales…Smiles did not leave our faces that evening. At “Kofta” we also had dinner of vegan ciabatta sand wiches, enjoyed sea buckthorn tea. By the way, we noticed that the assortment in the coffee house was enriched with new fruit drinks, we tried one of them — ap ple tea with paprika and thyme. Such teas are trendy today. In addition, we managed to talk with Irina about the new feature of this cozy coffee house — focus on environ

This is called Kemex

The smell of coffee is pleasant for everyone

the photos of this coffee maker on the In ternet. Veronica explained that it was not very popular, because the glass from which the coffee maker is made is very fragile. But this method is very popu lar in Japan. A lot of interesting things happened that evening before our eyes in “Kofta”. We smelled and chewed coffee beans, tried to understand the calibration of grain. We smelled aromas, savoring in addition to Kenya three other coffee varieties — Rwanda, Colombia, Ethiopia, brewed in different ways, and shared their gustatory sensations. Then there was a master class. Three guests were invited to make cof

mental friendliness. In “Kofta” they got rid of plastic: they use biodegradable sugar cane dishes, in particular, palm leaf plates, wooden tea spoons. Irina already talked about this in her interview with ONT. Now she is thinking of a substitution for plastic cocktail sticks. We, in turn, suggested that sticks from rye, which is in abundance in Belarus, can completely replace plastic, they say, the Italians use pasta for cocktails! On such a positive note, we said goodbye to our beloved coffee house, where they treat coffee with special ten derness and reverence. By Valentina and Ivan Zhdanovich. Photo by Ivan Zhdanovich.

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festival

Bright, cool, extreme Do you know what a balancer is? Have you seen acrobats building an intricate pyramid, standing on each other’s heads, and even with the help of long poles — perches? Now imagine the same thing, but in the air and on the trapeze. Breathtaking! It was one of the performances that pleased the audience of the II Minsk International Circus Festival: attractions on the brink, or even beyond the limits of human capabilities, the risk which makes one’s heart stop beating, and at the same time incredible lightness and beauty, achieved only by the highest professionalism.

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ere you really under stand what a great tornado of applause is like — the contes tants were literally bathed in applause. Three-time winners of gold medals, aerial gymnasts in the ring Alexey Grigorov and Marina Glavat skikh from Ukraine showed a fantasti cally beautiful performance that made the audience shout for delight. A guest from China, Li Wei, demonstrated mi racles of balance, riding a monocycle on a thin wire, and the young man pedaled while doing a handstand. Romanian Daniel Badea balanced on a free-stan ding 8‑meter staircase — a trick that no

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one else in the world does. The Russians Tatyana and Andrei Yarovykh showed a performance with trained bears: furry teddy bears are one of the most difficult and dangerous animals to be trained, and the apparent ease with which the artists manage them is actually worth a lot. The Brazilian clown Pepe Jardim also deserved his applause: it is a real talent to make the audience, whose lan guage you don’t know, laugh. The artists of the Belarusian State Circus also looked very good against such a brilliant background. Young aeri al gymnasts Anastasia Donchenko and Anastasia Putyato have already experi enced international victories, Bogdan and Dmitry Kazakov demonstrate the highest level of power extreme: nails are hammered into the board with a palm stroke, logs are dragged with the help of teeth. For the performance the brothers prepared a trick, which no one had performed since the beginning of the 20th century: as we know, it takes four strong men to displace the piano — the Belarusian sturdy fellows showed that a real man is capable of doing it alone. The debut, called “Air Flight” under the direction of Evgeny Kononovich, took place at the festival: artists fly at a height of 13 meters, the amplitude of the swing of the trapezoid is 18.5 meters. Moreover, the Belarusians prepared this risky act within only 4 months! Looking at the incredible things, which

are taking place in the arena, one un derstands why Urs Pilz, the vice presi dent of the world’s oldest circus fes tival in Monte Carlo, which has been patronized by the princely family of Monaco since its foundation in 1974, so highly values the Minsk forum: “Even holding it for the first time, the Belarusian State Circus showed a very good level, excellent quality of work, and now we see a real upper class,” said the jury member. — This means that Minsk plays in the Premier League, it is included in those several top-class festivals that exist in the world. Of course, it is incorrect to compare two forums: years, experience, history, atmosphere — all this is too different. However, Pilz emphasized, artists of the same status gathered in Belarus for a golden cylinder (the festival’s prize is a symbolic magician’s hat made of Bela rusian straw), as the ones who are fight ing for a golden clown figurine. The jury also determines the pres tige: it is almost impossible to bring so many leading figures together, but the Belarusian State Circus has managed this for the second time. In addition to Urs Pilz, the experts included the Minister of Culture of Hungary Peter Fekete, artistic director of the Russian State Circus Gia Eradze, and chairper sons of major European festivals. — It’s hard to create such a program, and I have the experience of more than

200 festivals, — said Peter Dubinsky, the famous circus impresario from the USA. — Usually, even before the start, we understand the capabilities of the artists: these ones will fight for gold, those will fight for silver. This time we had a very serious discussion — many points were close or even the same. When there is such a close level of performances and such a high one — it’s always regretta ble if some artist receives a prize, and an other one no less talented is overboard. In addition to the Grand Prix and standard gold, silver and bronze, the festival awards the prize of the chil dren’s jury (figurine of a nesting doll), of the public jury (it was headed by the national artist maestro Alexander Anisimov), the audience award, as well as a special prize named after Mikhail Rumyantsev — the famous Soviet clown Karandash, teacher of Yuri Nikulin. By Irina Ovsepyan

 The geography of the Minsk International Circus Festival is impressive: Brazil, China, USA, Australia, Israel, Germany, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, DPRK, Romania, Moldova, Mexico, Hungary, Italy, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus.

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planet of people

Our correspondent contacted Ev geniya Romanovich in the midst of the premiere shows in New York City. We talked about global and specifics. Which way do the theater and modern dance go? What trends set the tone? What exo ticism is there in Grodno in the creative space of “DOM46”? We also discussed mad, crazy creative rhythms of New York.

American wow effect “This is an amazing city. In the subway there are amazing musicians,

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Evgeniya Romanovich in Grodno has earned a reputation as a person who creates an atmosphere of attention and respect for the theater. Open. New. Brave! The girl inspires like-minded people and attracts students by mental processing, inner courage, ability to make grandiose projects and achieve fantastic goals. And now she is dancing at the La MaMa Theatre in Manhattan.

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Evgeniya in a theater in Manhattan

Evgenia Romanovich in the play "The sun has risen — we are here"

they should have been on the big stage. But this is New York, a barbaric competition,” says Evgeniya. — The bold openness of Americans is sur prising. I was in the elevator of a ho tel with a stranger, and he said to me, “Hmm… Today, there have been very tasty buns for breakfast”. Wishing a good day to a passerby is easy! A dif ferent atmosphere, a different society. Flash-like speed! I went to various dance schools: street, contemporary and ballet classes. And I want to say: Americans are technical, fast, they

don’t know the words “I can’t”, “I don’t know how”. The world-famous American cho reographer Calin Thomas-Jung flew to Poland for the production of “The sun has risen — we are here”. She selected 10 people: Americans, Poles, Ukrain ians and Belarusians. Evgeniya Ro manovich learnt about the casting in Lublin by chance. After graduating from the Belarusian Academy of Arts the girl was working at the Puppet theater in Grodno, had participated in Polish and Russian projects and a French festival.

planet of people stability, tenderness. The way you live through it, looking for happiness. “How did the viewer meet you?” — I ask. “The director immediately said that the American viewer is experienced, loves technique, wow effect. To bang, bang! Impressive show! Yes, here pop culture is really professional, bright. Look at the super cool concerts of Ma donna, Beyonce! And in modern dance the American spectator is also experi enced. We received positive feedback on the performance, people thanked us, said how interesting and cool it was. Political and economic things were re vealed. Many people emphasized the team’s friendship. I didn’t see the work from the outside, but it was very good to exist inside, because I understood what we were doing and what for, and felt the mission in it. By the way, we were invited to Japan. And (laughing) it would be great to perform in Bela rus. The director asked, “Zhenya, is this real? — Evgeniya Romanovich smiles and adds: — We want to come to Bela rus, but we need an organizer.”

To be or not to be? The Belarusian is inspired by subtle things, barely noticeable spiritual move

ments. Remember? “The soul must work day and night, day and night.” In Evgeniya’s case, the soul loves its work and does not count hours. For self-development in the U. S. they work day and night continuously. If a dancer earns $17 per hour and a master class costs $20 per hour, they will not earn enough to learn. Evgeniya Romanovich sees the other side of the medal in this. Although there are a lot of free classes, and the La MaMa theatre allocates two million dollars annually to support young artists. The productions involve actors and dancers from seventy coun tries. “Does an American director have a specific style of work?” — I wonder. “I wouldn’t speak about the men tality. The directors are different: one can throw a stool at the actor and an other is tactful. But whether it’s true or my subjective opinion, but in the Western approach there is no “leadersubordinate” scheme, we are on an equal footing. In Belarus, I was in awe of the directors. Calin Thomas is an American and a Buddhist. That’s why working with her is a great discovery for me. She didn’t impose anything, we all gave birth to the production togeth er,” says Evgeniya. — However, there is a difference. For example, you showed

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But that was the forst experience of work with an American choreographer. “The sun has risen — we are here” is a contemporary performance, it shows modern dance, improvisation, movements from jazz dance, yoga, martial arts and many other trends. Contemporary is believed to be born from modern, which became possible thanks to free dance. The founder of the latter is Isadora Duncan, who was the first to say “no” to the classical ballet. And today we have modern dance as a separate free body language, capable of conveying not only a pop love story, but also deep serious things. “All contemporary performances are ambiguous, one cannot say, “This work is about this or that”. Because eve ryone through their own experience (what books they have read, what films they have watched, what they know about politics and economics) will read the body language in their own way,” says Evgeniya. — For me, our staging is about the state of a person. We divide the world into a “party”, where every thing is cool, everyone hangs out, there are bright lights, we have fun, and reali ty, where there is a lot of garbage. This was staged by a choreographer from the USA. They do have dirty streets, there is so much garbage that we, the Belaru sians, can hardly imagine. And Calin perceives the world through this dirty street. We used kraft paper. It was lying all over us, hung in flocks. The world of ruin, where everything wasn’t what you thought it would be. And for me, the party is when we see everything bright and coloured like kids, and then we grow up and get into the real world. In our production, a person is often astoop, not straight, lying, sitting not erectly. This is the feeling of discomfort when you are constantly broken (pause). For me my meaning is very valuable. After all, I have not understood for a long time what the work is about. Once in Lub lin after a rehearsal I went outside and saw a homeless man sitting and sleeping on a bench like that (!), astoop. I knew what our work was about! A state of in

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planet of people combine them competently, trying to find an individual one. And in the U. S., individuality in any form is valued,” the artist emphasizes. — I also noticed the following trend: the audience is not in terested in just watching the dance, it wants to participate on its own! To dance, to sing!

Homeland Dancing, singing, drawing are taught in the art space “DOM46”. It was opened by Evgeniya Romanovich, which stirred up the creative atmos phere in Grodno. “DOM46” is not just a dance studio, it is distinguished by its broad creative policy and its own philosophy of minimalism. Modern dances, ballet, poetry sessions, musi cal events, film screenings, drawing, lectures, meetings in black and white halls. Today, the art platform also offers exotics: Brazilian martial arts capoeira, Gurdjieff movements, trampoline fit ness. “DOM46” is an alternative for the city, it is for those who are brave, in love with creativity, for whom just the theater is not enough, they want performance. Such art venues are of ten found in Moscow and Paris, but for Grodno this is a novelty. “I understand that you are not the kind of person who, facing difficulties, just takes your toys out of the sandbox and goes to another one… But, Evgeni ya, weren’t you discouraged when you

were under budget with some projects, and broke even?” — I ask. “For such an art project you need five or six people to share responsibilities and everyone did their job. We conducted classes, did accounting, organized the process, rented out, washed the floor. But organization of the project is manage ment. I have no education in this area, so everything is intuitive. But I have a great desire to learn and get great people invi oled. For example, I got acquainted at the festival and I see that a person has unique knowledge and I think: “Oh! This is what can help us in Belarus! I feel inspired and invite him to Grodno. The project is coming to an end, he gathered few peo ple, but everyone who came got what they wanted. And I got what I wanted, and the “DOM46”, and the teacher. And it turns out that we have broken even. I say no more master classes, but I invite them again,” says the artist. Evgeniya Romanovich confess es that now in New York she misses “DOM46” very much, her native space, where it is so warm and comfortable. But, starting to do something new, not comfortable for themselves, we greatly expand the range of opportunities, as in geometric progression. You face the challenge, and the space opens up to you. This is like a snowball effect, which is growing, and the number and scale of opportunities and projects is growing as well. Just start. By Margarita Sadovskaya lamama.org

an etude. Our director will be explain ing for a long time what was bad in it, and you will be remaking this sketch 20 times. Calin gives — attention! — 1 chance. Didn’t manage? She says with a polite smile “okay” and silently rejects your work (spreads her hands). Your idea may be cool, but if she doesn’t strike home at once, they don’t accept it. We can practice in Belarus for a long time, trying to make the right gesture for hours… And here: “Didn’t you find the gesture?” Pfft… That’s all! Someone else will make this gesture! On the one hand, it’s tough, on the other hand, it’s cool, it’s interesting, I like this style. One needs to be stroked for encouragement, the other needs to be beaten (smiling). For the conservative theater Ham let’s question “to be or not to be” is very acute. The new time dictates its own conditions, and the theatre has to hur ry. “At opera festivals in Warsaw Asians sang — imagine! — classical European music. So, they are interested in it. But this is a special case. One cannot per ceive individual phenomena as a trend. But mixing of everything is a fact. So, in Europe, a popular trend is experi mental, when, say, hip-hop dancers un derstand that they do not only want to master technique, dance to music, but also to tell stories, search for an idea and concept of movements. And it reminds us of the theatre. Now the dancer stud ies a variety of techniques, and success will come to those who will be able to

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Professionals

makeup by Darya Yodel

“I went into debt to go to Austria for the world make-up championship,” — admits Darya Yodel. The only Belaru sian makeup artist who was able to gain recognition in Europe and the USA lives in Grodno. In the times when the sphere of beauty is seen as easy bread, Darya turns visage into art. The resident of Grodno doesn’t follow the beaten track, and poses a bold challenge with her creativity. She is a revolutionary in her profession, she paves the way that no one has walked before and leads many and many students. Darya Yodel told about her work at Fashion Week in New York, how the services of a magician helped her sur

Тhe artist tells about the title of world champion and secrets of the stellar profession prise the stellar jury at the World Cup, revealed the secrets of makeup, which makes any woman happy in a matter of minutes. Every year in July, the town of Kla genfurt becomes the epicenter of worldclass fashion events. The whole island is given for the “World Bodypainting Fes tival.” This is a festival of body art, at which the world champion in makeup is chosen. Belarusians had never reached above the thirteenth place — and then Darya Yodel appeared. The resident of Grodno won the top title on the first try. “50 countries of the world participat ed in the festival. In my nomination there were 40 rivals, — recalls Darya. — I love

an utter flight of imagination, so I con sider creative makeup my native envi ronment, where I feel like a fish in water. Freak things are close to me, neverthe less, creativity should occur within the framework of strict laws of proportion, color. I love this direction of makeup for the opportunity to say my word, to prove myself as an artist, and not just a good makeup artist. Yes, I competed in the makeup nomination for advertising and fashion projects. Do customers order this service for real life? Of course not! But the elements of creative make-up from the catwalk, just like clothes from haute cou ture shows, come to the streets with time. For example, before, red lipstick did not беларусь. belarus 2019

Professionals open and the face is exposed. In Mos cow, I found a talented magician who could make such a mechanism,” — tells the resident of Grodno. “The simplest element of the device would be worth a thousand dollars.” I could not afford it. Besides a dress, transportation of a model, her preparation, cosmetics — about 5 thousand. This is a huge risk for a girl who does not have any financial support. But there was no guarantee of victory. I treated my debts as grain, without which no future will grow.” Thanks to her world title in crea tive makeup, Darya was invited to say anything good about a woman if she wore it in the afternoon, but now, on the contrary, it shows taste and emphasizes the style. Colored eyebrows, eyelashes, hair do not look wild any more.” I would like to say that even for the risky, courageous Darya, creating an image for the World Cup became a real adventure. The point is not that the declared theme of “The Divine of the silent movie era” implied the creation of an image not for everyday life. The resident of Grodno dreamed of causing a wow effect in the star jury, adding real magic to her creative make-up. “I wanted to close the model’s eyes and lips with decorative lenses. Create a dramatic mask effect. So that during the presentation of the image the ele ments begin to move, the lenses swing the INGLOT team at New York Fash ion Week. But the resident of Grod no is not going to settle upon the only direction of her activity. Together with the young brand Bernovich, she re leased her own palette of eyeshadows. Such a collaboration was the first in the Belarusian market of decorative cosmetics.

Love and work fanaticism “Now you are the owner of make up studios and a cosmetics store. Can you name the sum of money to have on hand in order to join the sphere of

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beauty and start up a business? ” — I ask the girl. “The amount of cash injections de pends solely on the segment of cosmet ics a person decides to work with. And this, in turn, is determined by the cli ent, — says Darya Yodel, then adds — If you want the premium segment — you have to study at good courses, buy the appropriate materials and, of course, it’s expensive. I can say that today, if I sell cosmetics, which is in our studio, it is possible to buy an apartment and a good mink coat.” An exciting world from the covers of fashion magazines, which many girls see through pink glasses… But what pitfalls did Darya Yodel encounter on her way? “It is physically hard to be standing for 10–12 hours with bent back. Draco nian competition and frantic rhythm, which not everyone is ready for. Only regular master classes, courses, trips to foreign competitions, projects allow you to behave with dignity in the profession of a makeup artist. Materials must be purchased at an enormous rate. To en ter the sphere of beauty at the top level, a professional must rotate around the axis seven days a week, as nothing ventured, nothing gained, — Darya is sure. — High-quality makeup does not exist without emotional investment. For the future development of this profession in Belarus, I can say that the time is not far off when recommendations from toprank makeup artists will play the main role. Such a system came to Europe and the USA a long time ago. In Grodno, self-promotion is still widespread. You haven’t achieved anything yet, but you say how cool you are, put on a fake crown — they believe you.” The winning formula from Darya Yodel consists of unconditional love of what you are doing and fanatical work. No physical difficulties, competition, lack of money will stand in the way of a person who is determined to achieve top performance in the profession. The oversaturated beauty market, of course, will accept such courageous, full of ide as people.

Professionals

Not only brushes and paints “I love working with various charac ter types. If I am looking for a model, I appreciate non-standard, with sparks in he eyes. It’s almost the same as in love, the main thing is “chemistry”, to like a person, — the girl smiles. — I love people, so I work with everyone with pleasure. Feminine beauty is harmony, and not ideal criteria invented by some body unknown. So, makeup can radi cally change your face! However, I am opposed to “killing” the natural beauty of women. Only correction and ac centuation. Makeup is not a theatrical facepaint. Today, naturalness in trendy. Therefore, the main attention is on eye brows and skin tone. The former has turned today into a super trend, almost the most important part of the look. The rest is optional.” “I promote the idea that appearance plays a big role in the life of every wom an. We will not have a second chance to make a first impression. Moreover, there are moments when appearance can help achieve the goal, — says Darya, refer

When you have a heap of responsibilities, you don’t have free time, your personal life doesn’t go well and work is difficult, this trivial set from a cosmetic case turns into the only weapon that can support and create a good mood. Good makeup is the easiest way to happiness. ring not only to dates. — It seems that you are an experienced worker, a shark of your own business, but you come to have a job interview and before you have time to open your mouth, you have al ready made 40% of the first impression.” Mascara, pencils, lipstick, blush, fashionable highlighter today are not just female things. In a situation when you have a heap of responsibilities, you don’t have free time, your personal life doesn’t go well and work is difficult, this trivial set from a cosmetic case turns into the only weapon that can support and create a good mood. Good makeup is the easiest way to happiness. When it comes to happiness, Darya brightens up. Life has often posed a

question point blank for her. The cham pion has always chosen a profession as a source of meaning. Especially if there is an opportunity to help, give. “In London there is a charity show, in which outstanding stylists of each brand take part, — recalls Darya. — The energy of the event gives an out standing feeling. The proceeds go to the children’s fund to combat leukemia. 250–300 thousand pounds — a lot of money is raised. When at the end of the show a child comes out with a symbolic check for this sum, you understand that you live not in vain, and that your work is not just brushes and bright colors.” By Margarita Sadovskaya

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literary relationship

In the field of artistic oriental studies Belarusian-Chinese literary relations were not actually born today. We can even mention the publications of Nasha Niva, which are related to Chinese studies. This topic is often covered in Belarus. And in the 1930s the Chinese proletarian poet Amy Xiao was staying in Minsk. In the late 1950s, China was visited by Maxim Tank. Belarusian writers Yanka Bryl, Lydia Arabey, Anatoly Vertinsky, Grigory Borodulin, Mikhail Sheleg, Naum Galperovich visited the Celestial Empire...

ur compatriots (those who were born in Belarus, worked in Moscow or St. Petersburg and in other cities of Russia) developed a huge layer in oriental studies and Si nology. A good example is a creative, scientific life of a translator, linguist, literary critic Vladimir Panasyuk, who would have turned 90 this year… Translators are usual l y re m e m b e re d a b o ut when their work is directly needed. Even while reading Marquez, few people may pay attention to the fact that among his guides to the Rus sian language space there are our countrymen — Valentin Taras and Carlos Sherman. Or does everyone remember about Iosif Semizhon, when they read Adam Mitskevich’s Pan Tadeusz in Belarusian?.. “A translator serves the cause of friendship of peoples, their mutual enrichment in

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the field of culture. All their work and professional skills are determined by this main goal,” — once wrote Nikolay Zabolotsky, who, for that matter, devot ed part of his talent to translation. Vladimir Panasyuk was born in Polotsk at the end of February 1924. At the age of thirty he completed the main work of his life — a translation from Chinese of Luo Guànzhōng’s

novel “Three Kingdoms”. It is worth telling what kind of work it is. The novel was written in the 14th century. It is one of the four main classical Chi nese novels. The author is Luo Guànzhōng (about 1330–1400), who created his highly artistic work based on the chronicles of the court historian Chen Shaw. The story is about the third century AD, what it was like for China. Just at that time, the Celestial Empire fell into three parts — Wei, Shu, Wu. Not everything in the novel is true, but it so happened that the trust of the readers of all subsequent generations was so high that the history of China is studied by the “Three King doms”, sometimes in disre gard of documentary sources. Such is the power of a real ar tistic word!..

literary relationship

Our compatriots (those who were born in Belarus, worked in Moscow or St. Petersburg and in other cities of Russia) developed a huge layer in oriental studies and Sinology. A good example is a creative, scientific life of a translator, linguist, literary critic Vladimir Panasyuk, who would have turned 90 this year… Vladimir Panasyuk

Translated into the Russian lan guage in the early 1950s and published in 1954, the novel undoubtedly signified the political relations of China and the Soviet Union at that time. Even in Belarus in the 1950s and in the early 1960s, a good dozen of Chinese books were published translated into Belaru sian. Vasil Vitka, Nikolai Tatur, Sergey Mikhalchuk, Yanka Bryl, Lydia Ar abey and others translated books of Chinese writers, Chinese folk art into Belarussian. Then fol lowed a long “cooling period” in the relations between China and the Soviet Union. But the breakthrough was so powerful that there appeared a genera tion of translators and research ers who were interested in China. Vladimir Panasyuk forever linked his life with the Chinese understand ing of the world. In addition to “The Three Kingdoms”, our fellow country man translated into Russian “The Se lected” by Sima Qian (Moscow, 1956), “Dream in the Red Tower” by Xueqin Cao in 2 volumes (Moscow, 1958). By the way, the last of the mentioned writers is also highly regarded in China. “Dream in the Red Tower” also belongs to the same “four” of the best classi cal Chinese novels. This is a work in which,

unlike earlier magnum opus works of Chinese prose, there is an exact storyline, a well-shaped composition. This is the first novel where the au thor writes out in detail the experiences of the main characters, the change in their moods. “Dream…” is not written in classical Chinese, dialogs are in Beijing dialect. By the way, it is the Beijing dia lect that the modern literary Chinese language of Putonghua is based on. The main storyline is the journey of a clever stone, jasper, which the goddess Nuyva dropped. The stone asked a Taoist monk to take it with him to see the world, so, having turned into a human face, it got a chance to get to know people. In the novel there are dozens of protagonists. And more than 500 are minor… The novel was first translated into Euro pean languages in the 19th century. In 1980, even an institute “Sleep in the Red Tower” was set up in the educational system of China. Imagine for compari son: The Institute for the Study of the Encyclopedia of Belarusian Life “New Land”…This is about the poem of the national poet of Belarus Yakub Kolas. The further oriental career of our fellow countryman was mainly con nected with extensive Chinese language lessons. In 1955, Vladimir Andreevich was admitted to the USSR Writers’ Union. After defending his scientific thesis in 1954–1964s, he taught at the Military Institute of

Foreign Languages. Then for more than twenty years he worked at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Acad emy of Sciences. A native of Polotsk died on January 14, 1990. The range of scientific interests of V. Panasyuk was specified by the subject of his Ph. D. thesis — “The use of modular verbs in modern Chinese and their classifica tion.” The scientist is the author of more than 60 scientific papers. In collabora tion with V. Sukhanov, our fellow coun tryman published the Great Sino-Rus sian Dictionary (Moscow, 1983). And now Vladimir Panasyuk’s work is in demand. His life is an example of a true scientist and a true master of liter ary translation. He is from the group of founders, thanks to whom Chinese lit erature became familiar to a wide range of Russian readers. It is difficult to imag ine Russian Sinology of the 20th century without Vladimir Panasyuk. Unfortunately, the name of a native of Polotsk has been overlooked by Be larusian encyclopedias. For example, a separate book about Vladimir An dreevich Panasyuk could appear in the series “Our Famous Countrymen”. May be, over time, these gaps, such neglect will be eliminated?.. Let’s hope for the best. Moreover, the first step has already been taken. An article about Panasyuk appeared in the encyclopedia “Culture of Belarus.” Well, let’s start out small… Sergrey Shichko

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memory fragments

Turkmenistan, Kerim Kurbannepesov is in my heart

Some pages from the Cuban Diary

I came to Cuba in May 1988. I sailed on a cruise ship “Fedor Shaliapin” to a new duty station. I was sent from the Red Banner Turkestan Military District, from Ashgabat, where I used to work for a military mass-circulaion newspper for almost three years, to the editorial office of the “Newsletter” to work as an execu tive secretary. I stayed in Cuba, near Ha vana, for two years and one month. All this time I tried to keep in touch as much as possible with Turkmenistan, which I loved, Turkmen writers — my Turkmen friends. At the end of August 1988, I started to keep my Cuban Diary. Of course, many of its pages are about Turkmeni stan, Turkmen literature, about the national poet of Turkmenistan Kerim Kurbannepesov. In those notes there are a lot of naive and perhaps very, very un realizable for that time thoughts, desires, fantasies… Will they ever come true?.. I don’t know even now. But that is what I used to think about, plan… September 19, 1988: “I wish, I dream of writing a story about Makhtumkuli and Pushkin with the subtitle: “Meet ing, which never happened”. Something between fiction and fantasy, but with its own idea, with thoughts that, through Pushkin and Makhtumkuli, would char acterize two peoples, two nations, two na tional characters…” September 21 of the same year: “In the evening I collected mail from the publish ing house. Among the newspapers there is a letter from Kalinkovich, from Tbilisi. There is bitter news in the letter — Kerim Kurbannepesov died on September 1. So

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much is connected with the blessed name of this poet in my memories… And, ap parently, I will write about it. I should not just waste my energy on trifles. I should write somewhere my “Unwritten Diary” (4–4.5 printed pages)… and send it to the journal “Sovet edebiyaty”. If before my return to Turkmenistan (in 1990) no one will have compiled a book of memoirs about Kerim, I will do it. And by his 100th anniversary, I will have completed a book “Kerim Kurban

Kerim Kurbannepesov

nepesov. The fate of the poet “ (It’s neces sary to keep on collecting the material!). “It’s painful and bitter that Karim is gone…” Mail (including newspapers) ar rived in Cuba behind time. No matter where the letter was written, it first came to Moscow. At the address “Moscow‑400…” And then, probably after some verifica tion, it was sent to the addressee. There

fore, I learned about the death of the great poet and dear friend only at the end of September. Once a Belarusian publicist, writer Nikolai Kalinkovich (1950–1990) introduced me to Kerim Kurbannepesov. It was in the autumn of 1985… September 27: “Today, with the help of Manko, I met with Colonel Soltanov. He was a commander of a motorized ri fle regiment in our division. He fought in Afghanistan. Now here he is an adviser… Cubans really appreciate him. He has already been awarded the medal “War rior-Internationalist” of the first degree. Usually, everyone is awarded a seconddegree medal. But he got the medal of the first degree (in 1990, the Cubans will award this medal to me, of course, the second degree. — Auth.). When Soltanov served as a company commander, Lieutenant General Vel janov (of course, he became a general later. — Auth.) was the regiment com mander. Since then, they have been in contact. Soltanov also knows Tyrkish Dzhumageldyev. When I said about Ker im, he had already already known about Kerim’s death. We sighed together. Sol tanov only said: “Why?! For no reason, for no reason…” Yes, the pain about Kerim does not go away even now…” October 2: “I wrote a letter to Chingiz Aitmatov. I asked him if he remembered anything connected with Kerim Kurban nepesov. From previous conversations with Kerim, I remember that the poet responded by telegram to Chingiz Ait matov when he read his Plakha… I don’t know if Chingiz Aitmatov will answer?..”

memory fragments October 10: “…Velsaparov also writes that he sends me greetings from Golubo vich Lenya. He said about the publication of some of my works in the ninth issue of “Polymya”. But which work? Can it be “Summer Notes” by Kerim Kvurabnne pesov?.. If so, then this is just surprisingly wonderful. And it’s a pity, that he will not know, will not be able to learn about this Karim-aha… “Summer Notes” — I translated the wonderful journalism of Kerim Kurban nepesov into Belarusian for the magazine “Maladost”. The translation was handed over or sent to the editor by Nikolai Ka linkovich. Then, on one of the officer va cations from Ashgabat (probably in January 1988), I went to the old editorial office of the magazine to find out about the fate of the translation. I met then Ales Gavron. But I did not get a clear an swer. Later, the translation was lost in the editorial archives, which I feel very, very sorry about now. Still, I dream of seeing “Summer Notes” by Kerim Kurbanne pesov printed in one of the Belarusian magazines. Belarusian poet Leonid Gol ubovich was studying then at the Higher Literary Courses in Moscow together with the Turkmen prose writer Akmu hammed Velsaparov. He told a colleague about my other publications. October 23: “…Why not collect in side one cover essays on writers — vet erans of the Turkestan military district. These are the people who, as I know, used to serve in Turkestan — Arkady Marti novich and Platon Voronko, Valentin Rybin and Kerim Kurbannepesov…” November 12: “I finished writing the recollections of Kerim Kurbannepesov. I’m going to offer them first of all to the magazine “Sovet edebiyaty”… A small essay, dedicated to the memory of Ker im Kurbannepesov in this magazine, with which I am still on friendly terms (though the name of the magazine is completely different — “Karakum”), was published in 1989. For this, first of all, many thanks to the publicist Kakaly Berdyev, who at that time was work ing in the editorial office of the “thick” literary and art magazine.

November 23: “Last night, Sasha Aksyonov brought a reprint of my memories of Kerim Kurbannepesov. The name is “One trait”. It contains a conver sation, my recollections of his character, behavior, creativity of Kerim, about him as an internationalist. I wrote sincerely, without any exaggeration, I wrote truth fully. Of course, I can be mistaken in something. Of course, I did not know Kerim from all sides. I must admit…” January 3, 1989: “…Yesterday I took a binder from the “Turkmen spark” in the library. I found a lot of interesting things there. I found an obituary dedi cated to Kerim Kurbannepesov. It hurt again. It still hurts…” Republican newspapers from all the republics of the Soviet Union came to our brigade library. Of course, I was the most dilligent reader of the “Turkmen Spark”, a platform of the Central Com mittee of the Communist Party of Turk menistan. January 15: “I sent correspond ence about the connection of Kerim Kurbannepesov with Belarus to “Golas Radzimy” (“Voice of the Motherland”, a Belarusian weekly newspaper for com patriots — Auth.). This is only corre spondence. I think, I will return to this topic. In about ten years. Not less. But facts, materials must be collected now, must be collected today. In general, we need to write a book about Kerim Kurbannepesov. And we have to hurry. Since something is gradu ally disappearing from memory, it is lost. Yes, and now we need to encourage

people — his possible acquaintances. In a word, to work…” March 5: “Today I wrote nine letters. Almost all have questions about Kerim. I wrote to Gilevich, Zhuk, Emelyanov… I wrote to “Chyrvonka” for it to send me Peslyakov’s address. They were friends with Kerim…” Kerim Kurbannepesov met with the national poet of Belarus Nil Gilevich in his early youth. Somewhere at a youth seminar or festival in one of the Baltic republics. Ales Zhuk, as well as the poet Ales Emelyanov, met with Kerim Kur bannepesov in Ashgabat. Each of them, of course, had their own recollections. As for Peslyakov, he is a war journalist. In the postwar years he served in Ash gabat, Almaty, made friends with Kerim. Having been transferred to the reserve, Colonel Dmitry Peslyakov lived in Minsk. By the way, Nikolai Kalinkovich, who had come to Ashkhabad long be fore me, was given Kerim Kurbannepes ov’s contact information by Peslyakov… These are all the notes from my “Cu ban Diary” — the notes about the national poet of Turkmenistan Kerim Kurbanne pesova. An outstanding creative person, who largely determined the development of Turkmen national poetry for many dec ades. On October 18, 2019, Kerim Kur bannepesov would have turned 90. I know that this date will not be overlooked in Turkmenistan. I believe that many books will still be written about the great Turk men poet, a creative person who undoubt edly belongs to world culture. By Ales Karlyukevich

Kerim Kurbannepesov (1929–1988) — the national poet of Turkmenistan, mem-

ber of the Supreme Council of the Turkmen SSR, laureate of the State Prize of Turkmenistan named after Makhtumkuli, poet, translator, publicist, literary critic, the author of many books. The works of Kerim Kurbannepesov have been translated into many languages. Kerim Kurbannepesov translated the poems of the Belarusian folk poets Maxim Tank, Nil Gilevich, Pimen Panchenko into the Turkmen language. The translation of Pimen Panchenko’s “Poems of Shame and Anger”, published in the newspaper Edebiate ve Sungat (Literature and Art) in 1987 was an event that caused a wide readers’ response. Kerim-aga was on friendly terms with Belarusian writers Nikolai Kalinkovich, Ales Emelyanov, Ales Zhuk, Nil Gilevich, Pimen Panchenko… A Belarusian, the member of the USSR Writers Union Mikhail Karpenko who lived in Turkmenistan for a long time, devoted a verse to the Turkmen shahir. The poems of Kerim Kurbannepesov were translated in the Belarusian language.

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search for the lost

What are we going to be treated with? With pearl buttons! “A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic,” said the playwright and astrologist Bernard Shaw. What kind of “diseases” did the ladies of Minsk, Grodno, Pinsk, Bobruisk, Mogilev, Slutsk and other large and not very large Belarusian cities have 150 years ago and even earlier? The answer can be found in the excellent popular science research of Valentina Belyavina and Lyubov Rakova “Women’s Outfit in Belarus”, as well as in numerous publications of historians. And, of course, in old sketches, photos and postcards.

ach outfit of a wealthy woman of fashion of the Middle Ages could really cost a fortune. By the way, the dowry of the Prin cess of Milan, the future Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithu ania Bona Sforza, included 120 small thin handkerchiefs generously deco rated with embroidery in addition to several dozen dresses. Thus, the habit of women in the upper class of Italy to keep in their left hand a handkerchief soaked in perfume, was acquired in all the royal and grand-ducal courts of Eu rope, making it an essential part of the palace etiquette.

Antiquity is different for everyone. According to the weather After the French bourgeois revo lution of the end of the 18th century, the fashion for antiquity in the images and cut of women’s clothing appeared, first in France. Instead of huge wigs and hairpieces, nicely curled hair was tight ened in a bundle on the back of the head and decorated with diamond-studded hairbands. Bare legs, like antique stat ues, were booted in sandals with ribbon straps. They wore bracelets on their an kles and rings on their toes, which were detachable. But this fashion did not be come very popular on the territory of Belarus — it is believed, because of tra ditional local idea of women’s decency.

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Bobruisk

But maybe also because our summer was “Belarusian” even in those distant times, not to mention winter and slushy autumn. So, antiquity is hard to play with. A caftan fastened under the neck and a wide skirt are much more reliable. In general, the clothes of a representa tive of the small nobility and gentry were not much different from the tra ditional rural system. But a shawl, an integral part of the female “ancient image”, was very ap propriate: both looks beautiful, and protects from cold. Especially when the way is widely paved by our own national traditions. However, in mag nates’ reception rooms ladies delicately wrapped themselves in cashmere shawls made of Tibetan goat wool. But it seems that Belarusian goats also helped their mistresses quite well, if necessary.

Even the poorest Belarusian women had two changes in clothes — casual and festal. From the second half of the 18th century, kerchiefs or scarves made of light fabric or lace with long ends came into fashion. They were crossed on the chest and tied over the waist on the back. They were the subject of a special coquetry, as slightly covered a deep neckline from immodest looks. A peculiar replica of this style, though making use of downy or large woolen shawls, could be seen in winter in any Belarusian village not long ago. At the end of the 19th century hight-collar blouses decorated with lace inserts, flounces, ruffles, embroi dery began to play a big role in women’s wardrobe. Brooches were fastened to the collars, and small clocks, pendants and pearls were worn on long chains. Blouses were cut with a small pouch over a wide belt with a buckle. The skirt’s hem was decorated with flounc es, stripes of other colors, silk cord, rib bons to match…

First impressions counted and still count Everybody knows that first im pressions count. The tradition dated back to ancient times. Clothing was really an important factor and a kind of social marker. The appropriate out fit could open the doors of the recep

search for the lost tion rooms of the most influential In the 1920s, the dresses acquired a people in society. In the 19th century, simple shirt cut, suitable for economi among the privileged strata of society cal replication. This was followed by there were a large number of differ low-heeled shoes and almost complete ent “forms of clothing” for women: absence of jewelry. And it was also a home outfits, outfits for visits, walks, kind of fashion. Or its likeness. ny epidemic, including a fash rural and countryside, for travelling, ion one, is called an epidemic ballroom, theater, dinner parties… because it occupies vast areas and They all required considerable mon ey. Nevertheless, a decent lady was affects many people with the same supposed to have at least four types specific symptoms. And until they of dresses: morning home costume, go through, say, beads with wolf afternoon outfit for visits and home fangs, receptions of visitors, travel outfit Pinsk for shopping, walks and a festive dress for the theater, dinner par ties, and completed with jewelry — for the ball. In the morning, women members of szlachta did not wear light dresses and kid gloves, did not have their hair done in a complicated way and curled. The choice of jewelry was strictly regulated by age and circumstances. Only in the evening was it possible to decorate oneself with precious stones and pearls. Diamonds, even in a simple setting, were considered to look vul Polotsk gar in the daytime. In the daytime they used to wear modest brooches, medal lions on a chain, bracelets, earrings with semiprecious stones. Too much makeup was also considered to be bad taste. Parisian fashion magazines could be found in all major Belarusian cities. Thanks to the development of weaving production, trade, and reduction in the cost of fabrics, serial production of clothing began in the second half of the 19th century. Dresses were still made to order of a particular client, but the patterns were created in advance and advertised in fashion magazines which contained clothing patterns. The First World War, revolution ary events of the beginning of the powdered wigs and beauty spots 20th century for a long time changed on the cheek under an eye, pan the attitude to fashion and clothing in nier-skirts, under which an illgeneral. Considerations of pure utili stared boyfriend could easily tarianism came into the picture of that hide, or a tournure the size of a time. And unwillingness to stand out small helipad, nothing will hap from the crowd with their clothing. pen, nothing will changed, the

cure will not come. And when it does, be ready to be attacked by a new “virus”. Because the craze for glass buttons is treated only with pearl buttons… By Vladimir Likhodedov Slutsk

Gomel

Grodno

беларусь. belarus 2019

One hundred years of creative work

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The Janka Kupala National Academic Theater, Kupalovsky, as we often call it, the oldest theater in Belarus opened its 100th season

Of course, according to the tradi tion, a new anniversary season was opened with the legendary performance “Paulinka”, which has been on the main stage for about 80 years. We know from history: the play was written by Janka Kupala in 1912. It was the first comedy created by Kupala, and his first play. It was intended for the stage. The perfor mance was first staged in Tomsk, Russia, which the company of the Kupalovsky Theater was evacuated to during the years of World War II. What makes “Paulinka” so attractive to the audience? The question was asked during the intermission on the season opening day by the STV reporters for the news program “24 hours”. It is its mood, humor, cheerfulness, good acting — these answers were given by the fans of the Kupalovsky Theater. Pavel Latushko,

беларусь. belarus 2019

the General director of the theater, said that he loved this performance for national emotionality. In addition, he added: “The humor, the smiles that the actors of the Kupalovsky Theater bring with them and which our viewers receive, just emphasize that Paulinka’s age is not important, and it’s not important that we have turned 100 years old. Yes, we have a great history, as well as wonderful modernity. And even better future.” These words of Latushka sounded more than optimistic. And not without reason. The new season promises to be eventful: a number of new projects, tours, news and publishing projects, celebrations, and, of course, the premieres on the main and chamber stages have been planned. This was discussed at a press conference held in the theater on the occasion of a new season opening.

By the way, in the anniversary season the theater wants to perform “Paulinka” in Vyazinka, the homeland of Janka Kupala, and at the same time to make it the most widely attended one in the entire history of its existence. That is what Pavel Latushko said about the concept of the 100th season: “Three words are going to be the leading ones for us during the 100th theater season — History, Present and Future. We have something to be proud of in the history of the Kupalovsky Theater, we have something to present at a high creative level in the modern activities of the Kupalovsky Theater, and on the basis of this and through this we are laying prospects and foundations for the future development of the Kupalovsky Theater.” The next premiere performance is “King Lear” directed by Nikolay Pini-

Theater called “1”/“First.” It will be created in the verbatim genre based on the likenamed play, which Roman Podolyako wrote together with Mikhail Zuy. By the way, together they have already suc cessfully worked on staging of the play “Radziva” Prudok” by Andrus Gorvat.

Pavel Latushko:

Three words are going to be the leading ones for us during the 100th theater season — History, Present and Future. We have something to be proud of in the history of the Kupalovsky Theater, we have something to present at a high creative level in the modern activities of the Kupalovsky Theater, and on the basis of this and through this we are laying prospects and foundations for the future development of the Kupalovsky Theater.

New projects of the Kupalovsky Theater on the chamber stage will be associated with history, significant fig ures, modern literature and education. The project “Legends of the Kupalovsky Theater” will tell about outstanding per sonalities — actors, directors, artists. The project “Literature and Theater” is an attempt to show contemporary Belaru sian prose on the stage of Kupalovsky as sketches and readings. This will be done by young directors and actors. The tours about the theater have also been planned, those who wish will be shown the places, which are usually not seen by the view ers. These are different workshops — fake, prop, dressing room. The viewers will also be able to visit the art lobby, see the portrait gallery, backstage. The project “Musical evenings in Kupalovsky”, which premiered last July, will also be continued. By the way, the performances of the Janka Kupala Theater are held on the main and chamber stages. Next year a small stage on Engelsa Street is planned to be opened. Stage “A” of the project has already been submitted for prelimi nary approval to the Minsk City Execu tive Committee. Reconstruction works are scheduled to begin in December. This multifunctional venue, where the theater printing bureau is now located, will be used to show performances and

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gin, artistic director of the Kupalovsky Theater. The premiere is scheduled for December 2019. The scenography for the performance is being created by a student of the stage designer of Boris Gerlovan Katerina Shimanovich, winner of the prestigious theater prize named after Ivan Ushakov. Her name is already popular in theater circles. Katya’s works are well known to the audience of the Kupalovsky Theater by the performances “Zapalki”, “Zamlya Elzy”, “Radziva Prudok”, as well as by co-working with Sergey Ashukha in the latest premiere “Shlyakhtsits Zavalnya, or Belarus in fantastic stories” by Jan Barszczewski. At the press conference, we were also informed that Nikolay Pinigin would return to staging the famous play “Idylya” based on the work of Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich. Kateryna Shimanovich will be working on the costumes, and Zinovy Margolin will be creating the scenography — we know his work in Kupalovsky by the performances “Night on the Caldeas” and “Pan Tadevush”. The premiere of “Idyly” is scheduled for June 2020. The artistic director also plans to stage the iconic play “Tuteyshyya” by Janka Kupala, which he staged in 1990. In 1992, the performance received the State Prize. The play was written in 1922. Its action takes place in Bela rus against the backdrop of the events of 1918–1920. It was the time of wars, when the occupation authorities in our country replaced one another. “Tutey shyya” is a satirical comedy in which Kupala reflects on the national identity of the Belarusian people, their fate and future. According to Pavel Latushka, Pinigin’s updated production is a longawaited premiere of the season. The pre miere date has not yet been determined. The premiere of the plastic play “My Chagall” by the famous Russian direc tor Sergei Zemlyansky will take place in January 2020. A new performance is expected at the end of the year on the chamber stage. Actor and director Roman Podol yako is going to stage a perfirmance

Artistic Director Nikolay Pinigin and General Director of the Theater Pavel Latushko

беларусь. belarus 2019

Theater

беларусь. belarus 2019

People's Artist of Belarus Zoya Belokhvostik

Mariya Golub

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films, hold music concerts, and also serve as a gallery of modern art. As Pavel Latushko emphasized, it had always been and remained important for the theater to work for the audience. “We will expand the theater space through new productions of Belarusian authors: contemporary and classical, foreign con temporary and classical drama. We are a theater that opens the door to new ideas, new projects, for those who are inter ested in theater art and are ready to con tribute to its development. It is very im portant that the theater is in demand. At the heart of this is the quality of the pro ductions. Our theater is a leader in the country’s dramatic theater art and, I am sure, one of the best theaters in the CIS. We are known in Europe, including due to the quality of creative products, which we present to our audience.” We also learned that the company of the Kupalovsky Theater would go on tour to several cities of Belarus: Gomel, Grodno, Slonim, Baranovichi, Molodechno, Bobruisk, Salihorsk and others, as well as abroad. The perfor mance “Pinsk gentry” will go to Pol ish Bialystok, and the play “Harvest”, based on the play by Belarusian author Pavel Pryazhko will go to Paris. Also the theater is negotiating its tour to Warsaw, Lublin, Kiev, Madrid, Vilnius, Vienna, Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Janka Kupala National Aca demic Theater thankfully announced its partners of the 100th season: A1 com pany, BelAZ company, Beleximgarant, Belgosstrakh and Kupala insurance companies, BelVEB and Belarusbank banks, law firm SBH, Diaconia com pany, Belmet Austrian company and the International Association of Phar maceutical Manufacturers. The general partner of the 100th season in Kupalovsky will be the pro vider A1. One of the joint projects for the centenary will be a free live broad cast on the VOKA video service of the theater’s iconic performances. This was announced by Anton Bladik, A1 Deputy Director General for Digital Platforms and Content:

“It is a great honor for us to continue our cooperation with the Kupalovsky Theater as a general partner of its 100th season. It is symbolic that the first year of operation of the A1 brand in Belarus coin cided with the centennial of the country’s leading theater. Video broadcasts of per formances are a modern widespread for mat that is in great demand among theater lovers around the world. It makes it pos sible to combine different types of art and bring the experience of the performance to a new level. VOKA video service also strives for the same goal — to expand the boundaries of sensations and impres sions of the viewer. Multi-camera artistic shooting in Full HD allows you to im merse yourself in the atmosphere of the

performance, and new angles help to take a different look at the production, even if you have visited it more than once. In ad dition, this format makes it possible to see the performances of the Kupalovsky Theater anywhere in Belarus, which is especially valuable for residents of the re gions. ” The first broadcast took place on Sep tember 21 in Alexandrovsky Square. The most popular with the spectators perfor mance was the play “Radziva Prudok”. The theater will also start imple menting information and publishing projects — the first issue of the maga zine, which will not only tell about the history of Kupalovsky, but will also be come a source of information for those

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Theater

who are interested in the theater as an art in general. I am discussing this news with the head of the literary and drama department of the theater Olga Bobkova. The name of the magazine is kept secret. Planned circulation is about 2000 copies. The magazine will be avail able at the theater. The first issue will have been printed by the end of Octo ber. In the new season, documentaries dedicated to the Kupalovsky Theater, and television commercials using ar chival materials will also appear. Throughout the season, the most popular productions will be shown in the House of Officers. By the way, at a press conference the artistic director of Kupala Nikolay Pinigin admitted that he welcomed the appointment of Paul Latushko as gen eral director of the theater: “I have high hopes for this man, he will help the theater reach a new level.” He added that, in turn, the theater would try to make its performances up to the mark. When the new director came to the theater in March 2019, he expressed his opinion of the theater’s artistic director in the me dia: Pinigin is the leader of Kupalovsky, a creative person, one of the best directors of modern Belarus. He will be the first

to determine which performance will be staged (https://sputnik.by/culture/). As we know, the mutual acceptance of people having the common goal can only do good. Therefore, I think that everything in the jubilee season will be perfect for the Kupalovsky. After all, Pin igin is a smart director who knows what to stage and why. I saw almost all of his performances on the stage of the famous theater. He was a guest of the editorial of fice in 2011, just during the reconstruc tion of the theater building, when the theater was having a “gypsy” life, he gave a large informative interview to the magazine (No. 12–2011). That difficult time of “repair works” he, together with the company of the Kupalovsky Theater, overcame with dignity. Paul Latushko, former Culture Minister, former Am bassador of Belarus to France, is known to be a charismatic, thinking big person, perfectly understanding what cultural diplomacy is and what effect the theater can have on the viewer. In his opinion, the theater is a powerful mechanism that forms a worldview, affects consciousness and gives understanding of what nation al identity is. Pavel Latushko is an excel lent theater connoisseur, a theater lover, as he himself put it in a 2012 interview with Yuri Koziyatko, host of the “Picture of the World” program on RTR-Belarus television channel, admitting that he watches up to fifty performances in our country a year. Therefore, the creative tandem Pinigin-Latushko promises a lot of good things.

People's Artist of Belarus Viktor Manaev

Pavel Latushko:

We will expand the theater space through new productions of Belarusian authors: contemporary and classical, foreign contemporary and classical drama. We are a theater that opens the door to new ideas, new projects, for those who are interested in theater art and are ready to contribute to its development. It is very important that the theater is in demand. At the heart of this is the quality of the productions. Our theater is a leader in the country’s dramatic theater art and, I am sure, one of the best theaters in the CIS. We are known in Europe, including due to the quality of creative products, which we present to our audience.

беларусь. belarus 2019

Theater A worthy example is a theater pic nic in Alexander Square, which delight ed the most sophisticated theater-goers. According to those who visited it, a fresh breath of change was felt. The event be gan at 12.00 in the hall, and then contin ued until late in the evening in the park. And here is what the CEO himself said, opening the celebration: “Almost for the first time in the history of Belarusian theaters, such an open-air event is held. Our “Theater Picnic” is aimed primarily at marking a very important date in the history of the first Belarusian drama theater — its 100th anniversary. On the other hand, we open our doors wide for every one who loves the Kupalovsky Theater and is interested in theatrical art, for those who, perhaps for the first time, thanks to this event, will be connected with the theatrical process. It is very important for us to go be yond borders, beyond walls of our theat er and to present the theatrical art to all residents and guests of the capital.” The theater literally went to the peo ple. One of the peculiar features of the celebration was that the actors, manage ment and representatives of other servic es left the building and took pictures for the history of the theater. After all, a hun dred years of creative work means a lot. According to Latushko, thousands of guests are expected at the Picnic — both Minsk residents and guests of the capital, representatives of the foreign diplomatic corps, cultural and art work ers, colleagues from other theaters and devoted fans of the beloved theater. “We offer a diverse program that will last un til 23.00, — he said. — We are grateful to the Minsk City Executive Committee, our sponsors and partners for the or ganizational and financial assistance in holding this event. We hope very much that the number of people interested in theatrical art will only increase, and Kupalovsky, that is famous for the fact that it is impossible to buy a ticket for many performances, will continue to be filled with spectators and all those who enjoy the word “theater”.

беларусь. belarus 2019

Nikolay Pinigin:

The highest state of an actor is a clown actor. In the greatest sense of the word. A person who can wear different masks, different characters, different genres. Malleable, agile, temperamental person. Clever of our time... Good actor — co-author of the director. An interview for the magazine “Belarus.Беларусь”. The year 2011.

Orchestra artists

An autograph a pleasure

During the “Theater Picnic” in Alex ander Square, guests were able to learn about the many nuances of theatrical etiquette, peek into the backstage of the theater, make a mustache like that of a young Janka Kupala, receive an invita tion to preview of performances, and even walk around the Kupalovsky stage, feeling like actors. In addition, makeup platforms and a street buffet were work ing, where the cafes and restaurants pre sented theatrical sets, for example, a cran berry juice dessert “People at the swamp”, a sandwich with black tea “Black Lady of Nyasvizh”, strudel with non-alcoholic mulled wine, “Night on Kalyady. “ In the

Andrus Gorvat as a yard keeper

evening there was a concert of artists of the Kupalovsky Theater who performed the best songs from repertoire perfor

Theater

Historical perspective

mances. The music program was also pre sented by the ili-ili and Kasiapeya groups, Yegor Zabelov, Svetlana Ben and others. The ili-ili group that was performing at the picnic is a project of actors Dmitry Yesenevich, Mikhail Zuy and theater or chestra musician Eric Orlov-Shimkus. The weather was not good that weekend, but it seemed that in the center of Minsk the air temperature was several degrees higher: the theatrical at mosphere, causing a lot of smiles on the faces of the guests, contributed to this. In addition, many of them were warmed by plaids over their shoulders, as well as by green tea with Chayka canape in the street refreshment stand. Characters of performances in costumes were walk ing around the square, it was possible to have a picture taken among theatri cal props and stage scenery. On this day, since the very morning one could meet Andrus Gorvat, the author of the book “Radziva Prudok” near the theater. Thanks to the book and the like-named play, the former yard keeper of Kupal ovsky became known throughout the country. On the day of the festival, he swept the leaves in the square, took those who wished to the backstage, so that they could see the theater from the inside out. And was smiling charm ingly.

The Kupalovsky Theater is located in the building of the provincial theater, which opened in Minsk in 1890. The first perfor mance that was staged in the theater in 1890 was the “Sphynx” by Octave Feuillet. The Belarusian State Theater (BDT) in the building in Engelsa Street opened on September 14, 1920. The program of the first season included plays performed by Belaru sian, Russian and Hebrew companies. Before the opening of the Opera and Ballet Theater, the Belarusian State Theat er included a choir, a ballet company and a symphony orchestra. Since 1926, the BDT became known as the BDT‑1, because the BDT‑2 was opened in Vitebsk, and the BDT‑3 was opened in Gomel. The Great Patriotic War found the theater in Odessa, from where the company moved to Tomsk, where the performances “Front”, “Russian People”, “Dog in the Hay”, and “Late Love” were staged. It was there that in 1944, the director Lev Litvinov staged the famous “Paulinka” based on the work of Janka Kupala, a performance that has be come the hallmark of the theater and is still in the theater’s repertoire. In the same year, the theater was named after the great Belarusian poet and playwrighter Janka Kupala, and in 1955 it acquired a title “academic”. In 1993, for high achievements in the development of Belarusian theater culture, the Janka Kupala Theater was given the status of “national”. In March 2013, a largescale reconstruction of the building was completed which was aimed at the restora

tion of its appearance in 1890. Previous re constructions took place in 1949 (according to the project of architect Georgy Zabor sky) and in 1958 (according to the project of Abram Dukhan).The first stars of the Be larusian stage worked under the guidance of the legendary Florian Zhdanovich: Irina Zhdanovich, Heinrich Grigonis, Evstigney Mirovich, Konstantin Frolov. From 1921 to 1931, the artistic director of the theater was Evstigney Mirovich — director, actor and play-writer. In the same years, the legend ary Stefania Stanyuta came to the theater. In the 1960s, Boris Erin worked in Kupalovsky, in the same years young and bright directors Boris Lutsenko and Valery Raevsky came to the theater. In 1973, Valery Raevsky became the Chief director, and then the artistic director of the theater, remaining in this post until 2009. Over the years, such outstanding actors as Vladimir Krylovich and Lidia Rzhets kaya, Boris Platonov and Vera Pollo, Gleb Glebov, Stepan Birillo, Stephanie Stanyuta, Galina Makarova, Pavel Kormunin, Zinai da Brovarskaya, Nikolai Eremenko, Liliya Davidovich and Viktor Tarasov worked in the theater (www.sputnik.by/culture/. Today, Belarusian legends — Gennady Ovsyannikov, Maria Zakharevich, Zoya Belokhvostik — still delight the audience with their talent and professionalism. In 2009, Laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus Nikolay Pinigin became the artistic director of the theater. Today, the young generation of actors are showing their talent on the famous stage together with the masters.

This is how the Theater looked like in 1890

By Mikhalina Cherkashina . Photo are provided by the Janka Kupala National Academic Theater.

беларусь. belarus 2019

WINNER

The final was hot

he competition for a 3‑kilo crystal heart, made at the Neman glass factory, was tense this year. However, the young vocalists fought not for the symbol, but for what it gives — the right to uphold the country’s prestige (and their own) at the 2019 competi tion in Polish Gliwice. The final of the national selection for the Junior Euro vision turned out to be more difficult than ever: it’s not enough that only girls claimed the victory, in addition, many pupils of pop studios were in a situation of last chance. 14 years is the age limit for artists at the competition, which was simultaneously approached by Maria Zhilina, Anastasia Zhabko and Eliza veta Misnikova. Elizaveta was lucky — 1,526 votes of viewers provided her with 10 points, and the same amount the girl received from the professional jury, lea ving behind all the other participants. The winner of the popular vote, Ma ria Ermakova (1.907 votes of viewers and 12 points) received from the judges only 6 points and took the 2nd place. Monkey Tops group with 17 points is in the 3rd place — the judges gave the dancing girls the first place, but they did not have enough audience support. For the winner Elizaveta Misnikova, this was not the first attempt to con quer the selection — the supervisee of the vocal teacher Olga Drozdova had already tried to make it to the finals. — I have tried three times, twice I haven’t got into the top ten. But finally I have, and I am number one! I’ll leave the heart in the studio so that everyone could see it: maybe for someone it will

беларусь. belarus 2019

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14-year-old Elizaveta Misnikova will represent Belarus at the international Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Poland

become an incentive. I think I will try to get through the adult competition later. Misnikova came to the final show not alone, but with a powerful support team: her parents and the teacher — this goes without saying, but a group of ac tive teenage fans was specially formed for her. They called themselves “Team Ash”, after the name of Elizaveta’s song, sang everywhere in chorus the refrain, and sent SMS to vote for their idol. A good example of how victories are won today: it’s not enough just to be talent ed, beautiful and smart, it is necessary for a large number of fans to admit it. — I have fans and there are haters, but I believe that it’s impossible for eve ryone to like you — these are subjective things, — Lisa says. — And of course, the reviews on so cial networks are very different. But I’m

glad that my fans supported me, after the victory I had to answer messages and comments for two days. The coo lest thing was that the guys were singing my song when I went on stage — this is a very cool support! Now Lisa’s plans include prepara tion for the competition and classes, not only vocal. — I have to go to school, I have not been at school for a long time! — the girl admitted with disarming frankness. By the time of the trip to the contest, the song and show may have changed, supposed the participant. — Everything is ahead, at least we will make an acoustic version as well. But I promise that I will perform even better at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest than now! By Irina Ovsepyan

Anatoly Kleshchuk

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