Belarus to de-Russify schools, ready to defend against invasion

Belarus Education Minister Mikhail Zhuravkov has said
that, considering the large number of Russian-speaking citizens in the country,
the process would be gradual. At the first stage, it includes the teaching of such
two subjects — the history and geography of Belarus — only in the Belarusian
language.

The Ministry of Education hopes that it will help pupils to love their
mother tongue and stimulate a desire to learn other subjects also in the Belarusian
language.

Starting Feb. 1, a new “martial law” comes into force. According to the document, the emergence
of unmarked servicemen from another country on Belarusian territory will be considered aggression. The significant changes into the document give
Minsk the possibility of imposing martial law without the enemy’s formal declaration of
war, for example, in case of so-called “hybrid” conflicts as Ukraine is facing in Russia’s proxy war against the nation.

The new law was approved by the House of Representatives, the Council of
the Belarus Republic and signed by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, and was
published at the website of the National Center of Legal Information of the
Republic of Belarus.

According to the document, martial law may be applied, not only in case
of open annexation of the Belarusian territory,  bombing and air strikes from another country, or the use of other weapons against Belarus, but also in case of “sending
of armed groups, irregular forces or units of regular troops of another state”
into Belarusian land.

In fact it describes the known phenomenon of “little green
men,” which refers to the
Russian soldiers who didn’t wear insignia when invading the Crimean peninsula last year.

Also, the law prescribes events that can become reasons for the imposition of martial law in the country. Among the threats, mentioned
in the document, can be the concentration of troops of another country on the
border with Belarus.

The imposition of martial
law in Belarus means that the activity of Parliament will be temporary stopped, any
rallies and demonstrations will be banned, elections cancelled, Belarusians in
age of 15 to 60 years (55 for women) may be involved in unpaid work in defense
sphere. 

Earlier Belarusian Ambassador to Kyiv Valentin Velichko has said that Belarus supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity and would never allow other states to carry out aggression against it from Belarusian soil.

“We support Ukraine as an integral unitary state in terms of the current Constitution that excludes federalization,” the diplomat said.