Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

Belarus proposes to set up a public council on environmental radiation monitoring of nuclear energy facilities, Tatiana Bosenko, head of the department of personnel, ideological, organizational and analytical support and quality management at Gosatomnadzor, said at a press conference in BelTA's press center.

"On 8 September, public hearings were held in Belarus before a license for the operation of the second power unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant was issued. They were organized by Gosatomnadzor. Anyone could take part in the public hearings. On its website Gosatomnadzor posted the information on the procedure for registration of participants, on how to ask questions and make a presentation. We also posted the thematic information materials for preliminary consideration. All in all, more than 200 people took part in the public hearings," Tatiana Bosenko said.

The format of the hearings suggested the involvement of members of the public. Thus, after the keynote reports, there were 18 remarks from the floor. People voiced their positions on the issues under discussion.

"The hearings touched on the functioning of the radiation monitoring system (with Belhydromet providing the information on this), the functioning of the state system of radiation and public health monitoring, further support of the project by scientific institutions of Belarus and engineering organizations of the Russian Federation. Other issues included the prospects for the development of the region, scientific research, the development of the personnel training system and much more. Gosatomnadzor carefully analyzed the questions and comments received during the public hearings and formulated the proposals in terms of their further implementation. Some of the proposals relate to the functions of our department, the other to other state bodies," Tatiana Bosenko said.

According to her, taking into account the positive practice of public involvement in important environmental decision-making, the National Academy of Sciences and scientific organizations suggest setting up a public council on environmental radiation control of nuclear facilities.

“There are also plans to strengthen interaction with Russia in developing joint action programs within the Union State on nuclear radiation safety in order to continue cooperation after the commissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (BelNPP), and also to address issues of import substitution,” Tatiana Bosenko said.

In her words, representatives of the public of Gomel Oblast came up with an initiative to introduce a professional holiday in Belarus - Nuclear Radiation Safety Workers' Day. Nuclear radiation safety in the country is ensured by a wide range of specialists from different sectors, including healthcare, manufacturing sector, science, radiation monitoring, equipment manufacturing and others.

“Representatives of Gomel Oblast highlighted that the country has the expertise in mitigating the consequences of the Chernobyl accident and that it can be used to monitor nuclear radiation safety during the construction of new nuclear power facilities. They also suggested setting up an international R&D center in the Polesie Radiation and Ecological Reserve and using the potential of the reserve in developing a system of training personnel in Belarus and abroad,” she added.

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The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) and the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have signed a roadmap of scientific and technical cooperation in promising areas for 2023-2025, BelTA learned from the press service of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

The document was signed by First Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Sergei Chizhik and Deputy Chairman of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Pokhilenko. The signing of the roadmap took place during the visit of the Novosibirsk Oblast delegation led by Minister of Science and Innovation Policy Vadim Vasilyev to the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

“The roadmap includes six blocks of cooperation areas. These are the research of new materials for application in the real sector of the economy within the SKIF megascience project; a complex of import-substituting physical, technical and chemical technologies; innovative technologies of the agro-industrial complex, advanced biotechnologies, information technologies and unmanned aerial vehicles. Within these areas, Belarusian and Siberian scientists are planning to work on more than 30 projects,” the press service said.

The parties discussed the current state of scientific and technical cooperation between scientists of Belarus and Russia, areas and mechanisms for further promotion of joint activities of scientists in the interests of the real sector of the economy of the two countries.

Members of the Novosibirsk Oblast delegation got familiar with the permanent exhibition of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus “Achievements of Domestic Science for Production”, visited the Scientific and Practical Center for Materials Science of the National Academy of Sciences, the A.V. Lykov Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer, the State Research and Production Association of Powder Metallurgy, and the United Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

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We have nominated the Belarusian art of vytsinanka and the Neglyubka textile tradition for inclusion into the UNESCO list, Gennady Khodor, a consultant at the Department for the Protection and Registration of Historical and Cultural Values at the Historical and Cultural Heritage Department at the Culture Ministry of Belarus, said at a press conference to mark the Day of Cultural Workers on 5 October, BelTA has learned.

"This year we have submitted two more nominations to UNESCO: Belarusian Neglyubka textile tradition in Gomel Oblast and Vytsinanka, the traditional art of paper cutting in Belarus,” Gennady Khodor said. He clarified that the second nomination has already been included in the 2024.

At the end of last year, at its 17th session in Morocco, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO decided to inscribe the Belarusian nomination “Straw weaving in Belarus, art, craft and skills” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

According to Gennady Khodor, straw weaving is widespread throughout Belarus. This craft is practiced in 200 places of the country. “This is our cultural brand, this is our Belarusian ‘gold',” he said.

Belarusian straw became the fifth national element inscribed on the UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage lists along with Kalyady (Christmas) Tsars in the village of Semezhevo, the Celebration in Honor of the Budslau Icon of Our Lady (Budslau Fest) in Budslau, Myadel District, Minsk Oblast, the Jurauski Karagod spring rite in the village of Pogost, Gomel Oblast, and the Tree Beekeeping Culture of Belarus in Lelchitsy District, Gomel Oblast.

Gennady Khodor revealed the plans to propose the Belarusian bagpipe playing tradition for inclusion in the UNESCO list next year. “Bagpipe playing is not as widely represented in the country as we would like it to be, with about 30 professionals and some 100 amateurs practicing it. Bagpipe is played in Vitebsk Oblast, Brest Oblast, Mogilev Oblast, Minsk Oblast and the city of Minsk,” he said.

Four sites located in Belarus are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. “In total, Belarus is represented in the international UNESCO lists by nine objects,” Gennady Khodor said.

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The procedure of signing the cooperation agreement between the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus and the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China has been complete. The document was signed by Chairman of the House of Representatives Vladimir Andreichenko on 6 October. This means that the document enters into force, BelTA learned from the press service of the House of Representatives.

“It is pleasant to note that we are making a powerful leap forward in inter-parliamentary cooperation with the People's Republic of China. The agreement provides for the establishment of a high-level committee on cooperation between legislative bodies,” Vladimir Andreichenko said. “The committee will aim to deepen and strengthen relations between the two states, as well as to put forward proposals and recommendations on various issues. Our efforts will be focused on intensifying contacts in key areas, including in the trade and economic sector.”

The speaker emphasized that in 2022 China became Belarus' second largest trade partner after Russia. “Belarus-China trade amounted to almost $5.8 billion. I am convinced that the current agreement will serve as a solid basis to further building up of interaction in the spirit of all-weather and comprehensive strategic partnership announced by the leaders of Belarus and China last September,” the speaker of the House of Representatives said.

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Pavel Shkurko, head of the energy and gas supply office of the production and technology department of the Energy Ministry, shared the latest news about the Belarusian nuclear power plant with BelTA.

Pavel Shkurko noted that the first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is already up and running, while the second unit is now at the pilot operation stage.

“Working in the base-load operation mode the two units will be able to generate 18.5 billion kWh of electricity and replace 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas. This will increase the country's energy security by diversifying its energy sources. Nuclear energy is already a reality in Belarus,” the specialist noted.

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Head of the Hunting Industry Department of the Belarusian Forestry Ministry Aleksandr Kozorez called a press conference to reveal how much licenses for hunting wild beasts in Belarus cost, BelTA has learned.

The season for hunting male deer and male elk during the rutting period is nearly over. “It went quite well. As many as 175 deer buck trophies and about 140 male elk trophies were secured in hunting ranges of the Forestry Ministry. It is the most interesting kind of hunt for Belarusians and foreigners. All the opportunities for welcoming hunters are present. Since our resources grow, the available hunting opportunities also expand and at more affordable prices. The Forestry Ministry offers a seasonal license for hunting water fowl for about Br60, for hunting fur animals, which can be hunted as early as this Saturday, for Br60-120. The license to hunt European roe deer varies from Br50 to Br150 depending on the sex, age, and species of the animal. The license to hunt deer costs from Br500 to Br1,500. A good trophy is a culmination of the work of the hunting range, park rangers, and game managers. This is why it is not cheap. Prices for hunting ordinary species are quite affordable and democratic,” Aleksandr Kozorez said.

1 October saw the start of one of the most popular hunting seasons: drive hunting for ungulates. “It is the most popular kind among Belarusian hunters. The resource base of the hunting economy is gradually growing. This year we have about 47,500 elk (1.5% up from 2022), 45,700 deer (9% up from 2022), and almost 133,000 roe deer (2.1% up from 2022). The number of animals is rising. The operation of all hunting farms relies on this resource base. This year we expect the number of trophies to be on par with last year when just over 8,800 elk were killed as well as about 6,200 deer and about 27,000 roe deer,” said the specialist.

Aleksandr Ivanov, Deputy Director, Head of the Tourism and Hunting Product Sales Department at RUP Belgosokhota, added that ungulates can be hunted by individual hunters or by drive hunting. “Licenses from our hunting ranges last for 24 hours at most and sell for Br10-15 on the average,” he said.

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Historical science plays a key role in combating the smear campaign waged against Belarus and Russia from abroad, Deputy Minister of Education Anastasia Zyryanova of the Russian Federation said during the forum "Russia and Belarus: Common History, Common Destiny", BelTA has learned.

"Today we are faced with the strongest information pressure, we see many attempts to falsify the history. They rewrite school textbooks, turn the historical facts upside down, demolish monuments. The goal is obvious: to sow interethnic and interfaith discord, to incite linguistic chauvinism, to pit the cousin nations against each other. This is why it is so important to pass on the historical truth from generation to generation. Historical science plays a key role in the formation of national identity and the preservation of cultural heritage. History is the cornerstone of everything," Anastasia Zyryanova said.

She stressed that Belarus and Russia provide each other with comprehensive assistance and support in the field of preserving historical justice and cultural heritage. Cooperation will continue to grow stronger.

The forum discusses ways of preserving the historical memory of Belarus and Russia, countering the falsification of the joint history of the two countries and the revision of the results of World War II. The forum began with a plenary session and continues with three breakout sessions to discuss the Russian-Belarusian cooperation to preserve historical memory and counter the falsification of history, to nurture the spiritual and moral values in new generations. Other items on the agenda include the historical education, historical and legal assessments and approaches to the study and coverage of the genocide committed by the Nazi on the territory of Belarus and Russia.

The next day, 4 October, the forum will continue with the roundtable "The Union State of Russia and Belarus: History and Modernity". The program also includes the events to launch the book "No statute of limitations... Crimes of fascism against the peoples of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" from the series "Library of the Union State", books and collections of documents published by Russian and Belarusian historians and archivists. The participants of the event will also visit the Khatyn memorial complex.

The event was organized by the Center for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Historical Memory Foundation and the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. The forum was held with the support of the Standing Committee of the Union State.

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The National Library of Belarus and the Rasul Gamzatov National Library of Dagestan have signed a cooperation agreement, BelTA learned from the Belarusian Culture Ministry.

Taking part in the signing ceremony, which was held in Minsk, were Deputy Director General of the National Library of Belarus Viktor Pshybytko and Director of the Rasul Gamzatov National Library of Dagestan Ali Aliyev.

The parties discussed a number of important issues during the meeting held as part of the official visit of the delegation of Dagestan to Belarus. The parties were interested in exchange of information and cultural resources, participation in joint conferences, seminars, round tables and presentations. The establishment of such cooperation will help the parties preserve and multiply patriotic traditions, provide mutual support in implementing cultural and educational programs.

The signing of the agreement became an important step in the further development of cultural ties between the parties.

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A biological safety council has been established under the Council of Ministers of Belarus. Its composition was approved by Government Resolution No. 634 of 28 September 2023 that was officially published on the National Legal Internet Portal, BelTA reports.

According to the document, the council will be headed by Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko and Vitebsk Oblast Governor Aleksandr Subbotin will co-chair the council. The council will also include Agriculture and Food Minister Sergei Bartosh and Healthcare Minister Dmitry Pinevich.

Other members of the council will be Director of the Institute of Biophysics and Cell Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Andrei Goncharov, Director of the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Vladimir Gorbunov, Deputy State Secretary of the Security Council Aleksandr Neverovsky and others.

The Biological Safety Council under the Council of Ministers is defined as a permanent structure aimed at ensuring biological safety, coordinating the efforts to identify, prevent and reduce biological risks associated with the negative impact of hazardous biological factors on the health of humans, animals, plants, and products of animal and plant origin and (or) the environment.

The updated national security concept has a separate section dedicated to biological safety. Speaking at a government meeting on 13 September Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko emphasized that the urgency behind addressing this issue grows every year. Moreover, the last decade has seen an intensive spread of a number of dangerous infectious diseases among people and animals. “These include outbreaks of severe respiratory diseases, the COVID-19 pandemic, and panzootic African swine fever, highly pathogenic avian influenza and others. We see outbreaks of diseases of humans and animals that we thought were eradicated a long time ago, as well as the spread of microorganisms resistant to antibiotics,” the Belarusian head of government explained.

According to him, microbiological experiments of individual states as well as biological laboratories of unknown purposes cause great concern. “Moreover, a number of countries, including our neighbors, have stepped up work to study the genome of humans, animals, plants, and pathogenic microorganisms. And this is not always done purely for scientific purposes,” the prime minister emphasized.

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The Belarusian State University (BSU) has improved its positions in the recently published Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for 2024, BelTA learned from the Belarusian university.

BSU has been the only Belarusian university represented in the rankings for the past nine years. According to the Times Higher Education Rankings published on 27 September, BSU rose from 1501+ to 1201+.

The 2024 rankings include 1,904 universities from about 30,000 universities around the globe. In order to get into the rankings system, a university must have at least 1,000 publications in the international abstract database for 2018-2022, with the observation of the standard of 150 papers published per year. Some 769 universities are in the status of “candidate” for inclusion in the rankings. Among them are six Belarusian universities: Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics (BSUIR), Belarusian State Medical University (BGMU), the University of Civil Protection of the Emergencies Ministry of Belarus, Francisk Skorina Gomel State University, Gomel State Medical University, Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno.

The rankings assess universities on five areas - research environment, research quality, teaching, international outlook and industry. The table is based on an new methodology to include 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators and streamline calculation formulas. BSU received high marks on internationalization indicators - the score of the share of foreign students increased from 71 to 77 points, and also improved some other indicators, which took the university higher in the rankings.

The top three in the rankings are the University of Oxford, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Russian universities, including Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, occupy the best positions in the rankings among Belarus' neighboring countries.

Together with the Shanghai and QS rankings, THE is among the three most authoritative world rankings. In total, BSU is represented in nine global rankings of world universities, including 387th place in QS, in 12 subject rankings, including the Shanghai subject ranking in physics, as well as in various thematic and specialized rankings.

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