So, you believe that Minsk jail looks like Osvencim and populated with Gestapo cops then? I don't need opposition journalists to tell that his story full of shit, I can see misconceptions myself. F.e. he claims that you not allowed to read books in jail and I know for a fact it's not true.
What I think happened, after he was released by Azerbaijan he decided to make as much profit out of this story by generated hype as possible. And wrote the fairy-tale about this jail. Don't get me wrong, those jails are bad, but things that he says in the story are simply not true.
Jails are bad in any country, read here about American jails if you think Belarusian jail is bad:
The same case is for Belarus. Building this station is part of becoming energy independent from buying Russian gas. Lukashenko will build it even if it's non-profitable and Lithuania won't buy energy from it. He's stubborn SOB when it comes to independence.
He didn't ask for independent sources, he asked for any source. Also if you've studied them carefully, not just trolled, you could see the document in English created by EU commission that is part of info he's looking for.
I'm actually open to see any documents saying that station violates EU standards from the other side if they exist.
Well, by now on you've read the article by Belapan where you saw the quote that arrest was made based on the Interpol warrant by request of Azerbaijan. Belapan is independent news agency, at least they claim so on their website. It's not state owned, Belta is. How is my evidence is partial then?
P.S. Also he's a blogger, not journalist. And the story of Belarusian jail that OP referring to is full of shit, even some Belarusian opposition members who spent some time there, not few days like this guy, wrote in comments to the article that he wrote mostly bullshit. Of course it's not a resort, and for someone who got there first time it can be tough and shocking, but it's not as bad, as he describes.
Actually, there will be risk takers on top of existing ones.
Belarus is the source of great engineers that created Viber, Juno, MSQRD, WoT to name a few. PVT revenues will reach $1 bln. in 2017. This decree just added more perks to already existing tax privileges.
The system is stable and growing, why kill the cash-cow? IT enterprise is not and oil factory that you can nationalize. Engineers will take the laptop and fly away same day and your seized company will turn into empty building with zero profit. Even dictators understand it.
Right, Armenian sources obviously not independent in this case.
Azerbaijan has a beef with Armenia about non-recognized territory that this guy visited and wrote in his blog how he fooled Azerbaijan military and same crap that he wrote about Belarusian jail. Azerbaijan started criminal case for Lapshin using fake Ukrainian passport (renounced in 2011) to enter the country and of course Armenia supports him for visiting the territory that they consider it's own. I don't want to dig into this conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia and take sides, but I understand why Armenian sources will be writing anything against Azerbaijan.
I think decision to transfer this guy to Azerbaijan was the right one. He violated the law, used the fake passport and wrote crap about them as a country. Why Belarus should cover up his shit and decide who's right and wrong in this story? They got the warrant and send his ass there. Done deal.
Next time when you travel, use valid passport, be respectful to the locals and you get the same treatment in return. Always worked for me. He did totally opposite and got burned. Good thing he's doing OK now, at home and hopefully learned the lesson.
Here's interview with vice-minister of energetic where he answers a lot of questions and concerns of Lithuania:
There's 7 more MAGATE SEED missions planned to visit the station and security tests are going according to the plan.
What I see is that Lithuania takes totally nonconstructive position. They concerned about security of the station, but at the same time want to pull off the scientists from EU commission that will be working on implementing EU security standards on station.
Reality is this station will be build, because Belarus needs it for energetic security to diversify it's energy consumption from dependency russian gas. Belarusians are the first who interested in high security standards. But Lithuania wants Belarus to stop building it, it's ultimatum and it's not going to work. It's not to late to find compromise decision and Belarus is open for dialog and Lithuania tries to take unfriendly steps like twist the facts and mix up the question about station with the other things. Even swedish deputy said you guys shouldn't bring Europe to two-sided conflict:
Belapan is one of the biggest informational agencies in Belarus.
Российско-израильский блогер Александр Лапшин был задержан в Минске 14 декабря 2016 года по запросу Азербайджана, который объявил его в международный розыск за незаконное посещение Нагорного Карабаха.
The Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin was detained in Minsk on December 14, 2016 at the request of Azerbaijan, who declared him on the international wanted list for illegally visiting Nagorno-Karabakh.
Лукашенко заявил, а Шуневич подтвердил, что Лапшин был задержан в Минске не по инициативе Азербайджана, а потому, что находился в розыске по линии Интерпола. "Мы согласно решению Интерпола его задержали. И согласно всем законам и порядку мы должны его передать Азербайджану.
Lukashenko said, and Shunevich (Minister of Internal Affairs) confirmed that Lapshin was detained in Minsk not on the initiative of Azerbaijan, but because he was wanted by the Interpol line. "We, according to the decision of Interpol, detained him and, according to all laws and order, we must transfer it to Azerbaijan.
Belarus had no interest in this guy and his destiny. He has 3 citizenship (Russia, Israel and Ukraine (denounced)) and got himself in the middle of Azerbaijan-Armenian conflict. All this countries, except for Ukraine wanted Belarus to do something different, release him, transfer him, etc. Belarus just did what international law says and washed the hands off. Right after he was transferred to Azerbaijan he apologized for wrong-doing and was released by the president of Azerbaijan and sent home to Israel.
Yeah, Lithuania making big deal out of this nuclear station. They aren't happy that it's based close to the border and they trying to say that it's not safe, blah-blah-blah, nobody will buy electricity and so on. Other countries don't have issues with this station though, EU checked it and found everything within norms. But every time something happens at the construction, like they pour concrete at the wrong spot, Lithuania blows the whistle. Lukashenka said that it will be build no matter what, and neighbors will have to deal with it.
This blogger was arrested because Interpol issued warrant for his arrest. Belarus as law-abiding member of Interpol just complied with rules, he was extradited to the country that made request, afaik.
I wouldn't trust the guy who broke the law on purpose. What he did is entered the territory using a fake passport, after he was specifically told by the government the he can't do this. And he did it not for any valid reason, but just to create hype in his blog. Pretty idiotic thing to do.
Anyway situation with this blogger is totally irrelevant to the Decree of Digital Economy that was signed today.
I went to Instagram address he mentions and looks like all photos are still there. I'm not sure how designer guy looks like, but it's definitely not football players' headshot:
https://instagram.com/ainiesta/
What could be the grounds of taking account away from him?
This guys is not a spammer, everyone who sees photos there can figure it's not a football player, but different Andreas Iniesta. Football guy could get verified account with nickname Iniesta official or smth.
Very sad story, I feel for the poor guy :(
Actually if we talk about post-Soviet countries some degrees there have value. They teach physics and math really good, otherwise, why would there be so many talented Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian programmers? When it comes to social studies, economics, law, not so much, but if someone got degree from place like MFTI it's probably gives that person more credit that degree from average US university.