Communist Tax Lawyer

Venezuela and China may become new strategic partners of Belarus. Lukashenko’s delegation visited Caracas while the vice-chairman of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China, Xi Jinping paid an official visit to Minsk.

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has asked the government to look for new commodity markets. “There are other fish in the sea besides Russia and Europe — it is necessary to reach out to the new regions”, he told Interfax. According to Lukashenko, Belarus is being pushed to embrace new partners because of unfair trade conditions with Russia and evasion of arrangements. Read the rest of this entry »

Mongolia and Laos signed an agreement to boost cooperation in agriculture, especially in food production, livestock, veterinary care, forestry and light industry, the Laotian newspaper Vientiane Times reported last week..

The agreement was signed in Vientiane on March 22 by the Laotian Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sitaheng Rasphone and T. Badamjunai, the Mongolian Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry.

“We are interested in trading agricultural and forestry products with Laos”, said Mongolian Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Mr. Badamjunia during his official visit to the country. He told local media, “this cooperation would increase relations between the two countries in the future.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Kazakhstani State Office of Public Prosecutors (SOPP) and The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) declared, that by 2011 the business community of the country will be divided into two types: those who are counted by the state as law-abiding, and those who are not. The second type of businesses need to be ever ready to be inspected any time, while the first kind has been promised to be left in relative peace.

Addressing the issue at a public event titled “Legality and Transparency of the State Control as a Basis of Consumer Rights Protection,” the authorities didn’t point out what criteria they are going to use to judge businesses and “to die-cast them as wolves or innocent sheep.” Read the rest of this entry »

Russian energy giant Gazprom has confirmed intentions on acquiring control over Belarusian gas pipeline operator, Beltransgaz.

Andrei Kruglov, Gazprom’s deputy CEO, discussed his company’s interest in boosting its stake in the company. This comes a few years after the company purchased 50 percent of Beltrangaz’s shares in 2007 indicating Gazproms’s intention to increase their control over the Belarusian pipeline. Read the rest of this entry »

Beginning this year, Russia is altering a prison system that dates back of 70 years to the time of Stalin, separating for the first time career criminals from the general prison population.

As the New York Times reports, currently, “the inmates are divided into barracks housing a hundred or so men without regard to the severity of their crimes. At night, a guard locks the door and walks away, leaving first-time offenders and people convicted of nonviolent crimes to fend for themselves in a crowd of gang members, hit men and other career criminals.” Read the rest of this entry »

The country of Georgia was set in about in a frenzy on Saturday after a television news program announced that the Russian army had invaded and killed President Mikhail Saakashvili.

The private television station Imedi showed the report at 8 p.m. Saturday evening, complete with voiceover commentary on ‘live’ video showing Russian tanks and fighter jets operating inside the country.

Georgians rushed to gas stations and ATMs, and the country’s wireless network crashed under the weight of fearful calls. Read the rest of this entry »

During the Parliament-session of deputy group ‘Onir’ on Tuesday, Kazakhstan announced that it would begin exporting grain to China.

“I can report that 20 thousand tons of wheat has been exported to the Peoples Republic of China for the first time,” said Kazakhstan’s Vice-Premier Umirzak Shukeev during the meeting. Read the rest of this entry »

After a lengthy, interesting, and highly competitive presidential election in Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich was finally sworn into office in the country’s capital of Kiev yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »

By Edith Balazs

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) — Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said countries in central and eastern Europe should join together and create a “triangle” of supply points for natural gas to reduce dependence on fuel from Russia.

“I’m proposing that countries in the region set up a gas supply triangle to boost the diversity and security,” Bajnai said at an energy summit in Budapest today, which was attended by heads of government from countries in the region. “We need to increase the number of independent suppliers.” Read the rest of this entry »

After 85 days on hunger strike, Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on Tuesday in a Havana prison where he had been held since 2003.

Tamayo was in the midst of a 36-year sentence for crimes including “disrespect, public disorder, and resistance,” according to the independent Cuban Human Rights Commission, and launched the hunger strike in protest to poor prison conditions. Read the rest of this entry »