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«INFOFOCUS» bulletin No. 9 (186), 2017

E-bulletin of IISEPS Center for Documentation, No. 9, 2017 – ISSN 1822-5578
(only Russian)

Content

Introduction
1. Basic trends of September
2. Chronicle of key events
3. Politics
3.1. Time to liberate business initiative
3.2. “There is no alternative to resistance”
4. Economics
4.1. US Federal Reserve announced the start of balance sheet reduction
4.2. Economy grows, incomes shrink
4.3. Our ideas, your money
5. Finances
5.1. What can and what cannot do the Central Bank
6. Our forecast for October
7. From the IISEPS desktop

Introduction:

Dear readers

As we expected, another seemingly oil-and-gas conflict between Russia and Belarus that seemed to emerge did not grow into a full blown trade war. Opening another battlefield with the only ally amidst existing confrontations would have been too much for Russia. There is a time for everything. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones. The policy of escalating confrontation reached its limit. Putin and his team, seemingly, decided to take a break. And the only ally used this opportunity.

Partly for the same reason we did not expect extreme scenarios during the joint Belarus-Russian military exercise “The West-2017”. Every political subject managed to draw a small benefit from the policy of threat pumping. Unfortunately, the exchange of informational jabs mainly resulted in a further growth of influence of military branch on strategic decision-taking. Remembering Chekhov’s metaphor, we could say that the rifle is not loaded yet, but it’s already hanging in the wall, therefore, the chance that it would go off has increased.

During September one cold observe a certain activity on the top of power vertical aimed at finalizing a fundamental document on the liberation of business initiative. The deadline was October 1. The deadline is behind, but, as we expected, bureaucratic machine failed its responsibilities yet another time. Taking into account that lack of responsibility is one of its main characteristic, there is nothing surprising about it.

IISEPS board