Vladislav Baumgertner handcuffed and led into a holding cell, as shown by Belorusian state TV chanel ‘Novosti’. Taken from a video by ONT TV channel. The CEO of Russia’s Uralkali, the world’s largest potash producer, has been detained and charged in Belarus for at least two months, and could face up to 10 years in prison for cutting out its Belarusian fertilizer partner. Belarusian... 

Doting father: Josef Stalin, pictured with his daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, disowned his son Yakov in 1928 A Soviet archive has yielded up one of the last secrets of World War Two that dictator Josef Stalin took to his grave – the fact his son Yakov gave himself up to Nazi forces during the 1941 invasion of his country. The party line in Stalin’s Russia was always that Yakov Dzhugashvili,... 

Moscow is preparing a lawsuit against the US Library of Congress over rare books claimed by a US-based Hasidic group. The move comes amid ‘outrage’ over a US court ruling to fine Russia US$50,000 daily until it surrenders the texts. ­Russia’s Foreign Ministry is planning to fight the Washington court’s ruling, which reads that Russia must pay $50,000 daily until it agrees to hand over the... 

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has resigned his post. Israel’s combative foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, unexpectedly resigned on Friday after being indicted on corruption charges, throwing the country’s political system into uncertainty just five weeks before a general election. His resignation, a day after the attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, charged him with fraud and breach... 

Democratic principles adopted in the West, including those that attempt to control elections, are not right for Belarus, the nation’s President Alexander Lukashenko said Monday. Advising his nation to “calm down over [Western] democracy,” Lukashenko implored the students and faculty of the Belarusian State Economic University to consider what is happening in Spain, Italy, France and Greece,... 

There has been an increasing rate of separation or divorce among couples and this list will show you the top 10 countries with highest divorce rates in 2012. Despite of the legal matrimony and orientation about the sanctity of marriage, whether it is religious based beliefs or principles in life, we could see that the values and morals for marriage relationships are being torn down. The weakening... 

While President Aleksandr Lukashenko promises the gradual democratization of Belarus, one of the country’s largest opposition parties has announced it will withdraw all its candidates from the parliamentary poll. “We will use the election campaign as an opportunity to tell voters that Aleksandr Lukashenkois a dead-end, while the exit from this dead-end is free elections,” the leader of the United... 

The Swedish Foreign Minister says Belarus has expelled his country’s ambassador to Minsk “for being too supportive of human rights.” “Outrageous. Shows nature of [President Aleksandr Lukashenko] regime,” Carl Bildt wrote in his twitter micro-blog on Friday. “We have said that the new Belarus ambassador to Sweden is not welcome and have asked two other diplomats to leave,” the minister... 

Russia offered Zimbabwe to conclude an intergovernmental agreement about the mutual protection of investments. Russian companies may thus obtain an opportunity to develop one of the world’s largest deposits of platinum. In return, Zimbabwe, which remains under the influence of sanctions from the USA and EU, will receive military hardware from Russia. Moreover, Russia intends to ship a large... 

The Justice Ministry has registered a political party with the declared objective of creating a unified state of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus called the Russian Union. The party is called the Russian People’s Union and is the first nationalist party registered under the new, much simpler rules adopted earlier this year. It should be noted that the word “Russian” in the party’s title is used... 

Countries of the “Russian world” are capable of changing the globe within ten years, believes top cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church Vsevolod Chaplin. ­By the “Russian world” he means states with a historically strong tradition of Orthodox Christianity which, apart from Russia, include Ukraine, Belarus, Greece, Romania and several others. “Our Orthodox civilization may not be that large,... 

Another scandal is brewing in the relations between Belarus and the European Union. This time, it goes about the death sentences against two young men, who were found guilty of conducting the terrorist act in the subway system of the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The largest terrorist act in the history of Belarus took place on April 11, 2011. The explosion ripped through the busiest station of the Minsk... 

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus The Belarusian president made this shocking statement in response to German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle’s report that Berlin is recalling its ambassador from Minsk. Lukashenko lashed out at the European Union in general and at Westerwelle in particular after the EU imposed new sanctions against a number of Belarusian government officials. “It is... 

Belarusian MPs have blasted a recent resolution of the European Parliament on death penalty in Belarus as an attempt to interfere in the country’s internal affairs. ­The Belarusian parliamentary commission on international affairs has issued an official statement saying that the European Parliament’s resolution on the death penalty in Belarus was a continuation of the practice of pressuring Belarusian... 

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko. Stricter European sanctions against Belarus will be powerless, says the country’s president Aleksandr Lukashenko. “Please understand that it’s only for the time being that we are tolerating the sanctions you are threatening us with. But as soon as you cross the red line, we’ll respond tough,” the Belarusian leader said on Monday, accepting credentials...