USSR

The Ministry of Internal Affairs recognized groups of citizens united by Belsat’s Internet resources as an “extremist formation”. Belsat.eu found out what it means and how access to alternative sources of information was criminalized in the totalitarian regimes of the past.

There is still much controversy about this date

In October 1942 in German-occupied Lviv, the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), supporters of Stepan Bandera, decided to set up combat units to fight the Germans as well as Soviet and Polish partisans. Their goal was to await Germany’s defeat, then launch a rebellion and proclaim Ukrainian independence.

The referendum ballot paper contained just two options: “For” or “Against”. Amendments to the Constitution – initiated by the Russian president on January 20, before the pandemic – have been approved in record time by the State Duma, Constitutional Court, and regional assemblies. Why did Vladimir Putin want to amend the Constitution, and how will it change Russia? 

In an interview with state-run TV channel Rossiya 1, President Vladimir Putin criticised the former Soviet republics’ having a legal possibility to leave the USSR.

Another would-be rival of Alyaksandr Lukashenka has come into the spotlight.

In Central Asia, ethnic violence erupts regularly. Why do such clashes occur? What can they lead to? 

On January 12, Lithuanians commemorated the tragic events of 1991 by lighting symbolic bonfires in the vicinity of the Vilnius TV Tower. The fires were also laid near the building of the Lithuanian Television and in Independence Square.