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The Moscow Times Moscow Guide – Winter 2008

Since the middle of autumn one of the most important topics of discussion, could only be … no, not the financial crisis… New Year! The winter issue of The Moscow Times Moscow Guide is entirely devoted to New Years celebrations. Seven great ideas for celebrating the “Night of Nights” will help readers finalise their plans and choose how and where to party, give fresh ideas and lots of practical advice.

And don’t forget – problems will come by themselves, but happiness and luck need an invitation. That why the more cheerful and light-hearted your celebration of the coming holiday is, the happier and more successful 2009 will be for you.

The Crisis: Signs of a Kremlin Fearful Of Unrest
Sociologist Yevgeny Gontmakher has painted a disturbing picture of what might emerge from the financial crisis, forecasting continued unemployment, huge protests and spreading violence.

Market Matters: Huge Grain Harvest No Boon for Farmers
This year Russia is enjoying the biggest grain harvest it has ever seen -- and farmers couldn't be more worried.



Thursday, January 08, 2009 Updated at 31 December 2008 22:36 Moscow Time.

The Moscow Times » Issue 3571 » News

bloomberg

Alexander Milinkevich

Milinkevich Detained Over the Weekend

10 January 2007MINSK -- The leader of Belarus' beleaguered opposition, Alexander Milinkevich, was detained twice by police Saturday, his spokesman said.

Milinkevich, the keystone of an unprecedented wave of protests last year against authoritarian Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, was detained in the morning on suspicion of drunken driving while traveling to meet with voters in the run-up to this month's local and regional elections, spokesman Pavel Mazheiku said.

He was released after he was found to be not intoxicated, but several hours later was detained on suspicion of being involved in a traffic accident, Mazheiku said. Milinkevich remained in custody Saturday afternoon, the spokesman said.

Police declined to comment on the claim.

Milinkevich has been detained at least three other times since late November in what supporters call an official campaign of harassment. In those incidents, he was held on suspicion of using a forged passport, of dealing drugs and of killing a pedestrian in a traffic accident. No charges were filed in any of those cases.

Under Lukashenko, Belarus has cracked down on opposition and independent news media and has become a pariah state to the West.

Milinkevich ran against Lukashenko in the March 2006 presidential elections, which were widely criticized in the West as neither free nor fair. A large, unauthorized protest rally took place on the night of the elections in Minsk and protests continued daily for a week -- an unusual series of events in a country where unsanctioned gatherings are usually broken up swiftly and harshly by police. Lukashenko has repeatedly vowed that his country will not witness any uprisings akin to those that took place in Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine in 2004.

Another protest in April gathered at least 10,000 people. Milinkevich was arrested after it and sentenced to 15 days in jail.