Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko convened a meeting to discuss topical issues on 12 August, BelTA informs.

“Before the election we agreed that we would meet a few days after the election campaign to discuss topical issues. It is clear that the priority tasks for the government bodies, in particular, for the Security Council (perhaps, especially for this agency) are to ensure security of our people, to protect the constitutional order, and to guarantee the normal operation of state administration bodies,” the head of state said.

He stressed that the economy remains a priority. “Therefore, the government needs to take all necessary additional measures, if needed, to ensure the smooth operation of the economy,” the president said.

“All people who want to work should have jobs and salaries. There should be job opportunities for those currently unemployed,” the Belarusian leader stressed. “The backbone of these so-called protests are people with the criminal past and currently unemployed people. Without jobs they just keep wandering around the city. Therefore, I strongly ask everybody to find a job.”

“I also want to warn some of our, mildly speaking, ‘bohemian' citizens: fake employment certificates will not do. Everything should be done in an honest and decent manner,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

He urged law enforcement bodies and public authorities to ensure the fulfillment of these instructions.

The participants of the meeting also discussed ideology, personnel policy, and work of mass media.

The Belarusian air carrier Belavia has extended suspension of air travel to Russia till 21 August, BelTA learned from the website of the airline.

Flights to Voronezh, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod have been suspended till 24 October. Suspension of the flights to Larnaca, Cyprus has been extended till 31 August.

Customers who purchased tickets for these travel dates will be able to apply for a refund or to reschedule the flight till 30 March 2021. Tickets can be refunded and flights can be rescheduled at company's offices and customer service centers.

The number of massive DDoS attacks against the infrastructure of Belarusian telecommunications companies as well as websites of government agencies and organizations was reduced considerably on 12 August, BelTA learned from the republican unitary enterprise National Traffic Exchange Center.

According to the source, emergency recovery work has been finished in the partner networks, which are located in neighboring countries. The republican unitary enterprise National Traffic Exchange Center has managed to fully restore access to Internet resources. Specialists of the enterprise continue working together with other Belarusian telecom carriers to restore equipment and resume access to the Internet. The work will be finished soon. The National Traffic Exchange Center offered apologies for the inconveniences.

The Polish-Belarusian relations should be based on the principles of mutual respect, non-interference and also mutually beneficial cooperation and friendship of Slavic peoples, reads a message of congratulations from Chairman of the Polska Patriotyczna party, Chairman of the Presidium of the National Council Pawel Zieminski to Aleksandr Lukashenko on the occasion of his victory in the presidential election, BelTA has learned.

“We address you the sincerest congratulations on your victory and re-election to the post of the President of the Republic of Belarus by the overwhelming majority of Belarusian people, with the turnout being very high. We convey you congratulations on behalf of the Polska Patriotyczna party. They, as we know, are shared by a huge number of Poles who have a warm regard for Belarus and brotherly Belarusian people. The policy and personal approach of the president, who is committed to the sovereignty of the state, international law and right of peoples to self-determination and independent domestic and foreign policy and own path of development towards the prosperity of the society, have long enjoyed respect of Poles,” the message reads.

“You demonstrated courage and responsibility as you resisted the use of the pandemic in global manipulations of people and entire nations, as you confronted the cynical use of the pandemic for economic and political gains. Such a position deserves admiration). This makes us believe that domestic and sovereign relations are still possible and should serve as an example for other leaders and nations,” Pawel Zieminski said.

“Despite the ‘media noise” directed against you and the attempts of the Polish authorities to influence the international affairs of Belarus, which many Poles do not support, the Polish-Belarusian relations should be based on the principles of mutual respect, non-interference and also mutually beneficial cooperation and friendship of Slavic peoples,” the head of the Polish party said.

Chairman of the Belarusian state food industry concern Belgospishcheprom Anatoly Buben talked to reporters about the measures taken as a result of the government conference hosted by the head of state in order to effectively develop sugar industry enterprises, BelTA has learned.

The official noted that sugar prices had plummeted on the global market. “Our prime cost is below the prices we sell at. This is why we are working to reduce the prime cost,” he explained. At present the prime cost of one tonne of sugar made by Belarusian enterprises stands at $350, down from $500 last season. The prime cost was reduced thanks to internal reserves, lower costs, and state support. “For instance, in 2018 we bought sugar beet at Br70 per tonne. The state lent us a hand, compensated the cost of sugar beet to the agricultural producer. Now we buy at Br55 per tonne from the producer as part of government procurement contracts,” Anatoly Buben specified.

Apart from that, the head of state backed the proposal to allow Gorodeya Sugar Refinery, Zhabinka Sugar Plant, and Skidel Sugar Factory to keep some of the last year's profits, which are supposed to be transferred to the state budget. The money will be spent on paying off the loans of the sugar refineries.

A similar decision was made with regard to confectionery industry enterprises. “The dividends, which Spartak and Kommunarka are supposed to accrue and pay to natural persons, will be spent on modernization as well,” the Belgospishcheprom head said.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against Belarusian Internet resources continue unabated, BelTA learned from the website of the National Computer Emergency Response Team CERT.BY.

A wave of DDoS attacks against Belarusian websites was registered on 9 August. “Attacks continue throughout the day today. Websites of government agencies and organizations are mainly targeted,” CERT.BY said.

Various types of flood attacks designed to saturate bandwidth with data packets and deprive the victim of the ability to use Internet access have been registered since the attacks began. CERT.BY also mentioned attacks meant to deplete server resources (CPU, RAM, and so on).

The total strength of some attacks exceeded 200Gbps. All of them were repulsed by defensive solutions of Belarusian Internet service providers.

A particularly large number of attacks targeted the website of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus. They were carried out at 19:41 and 23:20 on 9 August.

The Central Election Commission has updated preliminary voting results in Belarus' presidential election, BelTA has learned.

The incumbent president Aleksandr Lukashenko got 80.08% of the vote (he was the candidate of choice for 4,659,561 voters). Svetlana Tikhanovskaya received 10.09%% of the vote (587,411). Anna Kanopatskaya got 1.68% (97,552). Andrei Dmitriyev was supported by 1.21% of voters (70,613). Sergei Cherechen got 1.15% of the vote (66,695).

The number voters who cast their ballots was 5,818,965. The turnout was 84.27% for the country as a whole. The turnout in Brest Oblast was 92.14%, in Vitebsk Oblast 82.69%, in Gomel Oblast 89.7%, in Grodno Oblast 88.62%, in Minsk Oblast 84.79%, in Mogilev Oblast 90.79%, in Minsk 67.26%.

CEC chair Lidia Yermoshina informed at a briefing earlier on 10 August that as the CEC will be getting ready for its session, the figures will be updated.

Belarus has harvested nearly 1.5 million hectares of grain and leguminous crops (except for maize, buckwheat and millet), which makes up 67.9% of the plan, BelTA learned from the Agriculture and Food Ministry.

Brest Oblast has taken the lead fulfilling 87.2% of the harvesting plan (294,400 hectares). Gomel Oblast harvested 81.6% of the area (277,500 hectares), Grodno Oblast cropped 75.6% (240,900 hectares), Minsk Oblast harvested 70.4% (341,500 hectares), Mogilev Oblast gathered 52.5% (176,700 hectares), Vitebsk Oblast harvested 42.4% (160,100 hectares).

All in all, as of 10 August, 5.6 million tonnes of grain was threshed across the country with the average yield at 38.1 centners per hectare (in 2019, the yield as of the same date was 32.1 centners per hectare). The 1 million-tonne target was hit by Brest Oblast, Minsk Oblast and Grodno Oblast.

Flax was harvested on the area of 37,000 hectares (76% of the area under this crop).

The second grass cutting was done on the area of 731,000 hectares (89.3% of the plan). Some 709,600 tonnes of hay (70.3% of the plan), 12.437 million tonnes of haylage (98.7%) and 526,400 tonnes of silage (2.75%) were stocked.

In total, there are plans to procure 9.3 million tonnes of fodder units of grass feed, most of them in Minsk Oblast and Brest Oblast. By this time, 42.5% of the plan has been fulfilled. There are plans to procure almost 19.2 million tonnes of silage, 12.6 million tonnes of haylage (including 1.1 million tonnes in polymer packaging), and 1.01 million tonnes of hay.

Observers sent by public associations and political parties of Belarus to monitor the presidential election in the country stated that the election was held in strict adherence of the legislation, BelTA has learned.

“9 August was the last day of the presidential election campaign in Belarus. Representatives of our public associations and political parties monitored every polling station throughout the whole voting time. Over 30,000 of our people, and this is the absolute majority of all observers accredited at the election, state that the presidential election was held in line with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus. Our observers monitored all the processes: from opening polling stations to sealing ballot boxes,” the statement of the parties and public associations says.

It was stressed that no major violations which could influence the result of the election were registered. Every citizen had an opportunity to cast their ballots for the candidate he or she supported.

“At the same time certain political forces who nominated their observers falsified the information about the voting process and the whole election campaign in general. They threatened citizens and members of election commissions. Insults and threats were considered a standard by them. Our representatives registered numerous violations of the law on a daily basis. It is clear that all those actions were links of one chain aimed at destabilizing the situation in the country and discrediting the election. They failed to achieve this,” the statement runs.

“We state that this year's political campaign was held in line with the Election Code. The result of the vote confirms the choice of the citizens of our country and is beyond doubt,” the statement reads.

The telephone conversation between Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin took place today at the initiative of the Russian leader, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian head of state.

In addition to the bilateral agenda, the parties discussed the pressing issues related to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the two countries and the development of a vaccine to combat the infection.

The heads of state also discussed the course of the election campaign in Belarus. Vladimir Putin, in particular, noted the importance of further development of the fraternal Belarusian-Russian relations and the need to counter negative trends and actions by third parties which may lead to their deterioration.

One of the main issues that was discussed during the phone call was the detention of 33 Russian citizens in Belarus. The parties stressed their determination to deal with the situation together in the most decisive manner. The presidents agreed to study thoroughly every fact in order to establish the true causes of the current situation, find those guilty and hold them accountable.