Monthly Archive: November 2001

Judging by the answers received (see Table 1), at present, according to leaders and experts, Belarus faces three the most important tasks. They are: reforming economy, retaining state sovereignty and society democratization (in fact, employees of the private sector placed “retaining sovereignty” first). That means that ten years after gaining independence Belarus is still at an initial stage of creating an independent state, still faces problems that have not lost their actuality.

Unlike the whole population, elite is much more reserved towards Russia. Less than one fourth of pollees said a union of two states is the best variant of bilateral relations, and less than 3% spoke in favor of unification into one state (see Table 1). Differences in approaches of representatives of state and non-state structures are obvious – the latter view Russia as a common neighbor (though employees of the public sector must have more fears towards a close integration as a potential threat for their status). However, the matter is how it is possible to enlist voters’ trust having such views, because voters mainly think in a different way.

Only three months have past since the presidential election and all passions raging around the event have suddenly abated. Regardless of the fact that independent monitoring over the voting process, and then the majority of non-state researches registered a great number of election law violations and an unprecedented falsification of the voting returns, all seem to accept the election results and Belarus’ society fell into habitual hibernation. What is the opposition up to, what are the former contenders for presidency doing, what are well known politologists talking about, if it is less and less reflected in Belarusian press?