Actually not a lot to report. I've been away from here for a while. That's because I've had a crazy love affair but that's none of yallss business. Quit a job that, believe it or not, had everything to do with accounting for Indiana-based elderly homes (from here!). But maybe if you wanna know how shit's presented in the media in this part of the world.. Belarus-wise, it's life as usual, which is a bit crazy to me how relaxed everyone's is, but yea.
E: Anyway, the only reason I moved to Belarus is so that my clock matches the "Time in Moscow" on the front page here. Which also means I gotta got to bed soon. But if I don't reply now I promise to reply tomorrow.
Is the CIA still trying to do a color revolution or did they lose interest and move on to another project?
Probably still trying in some way. But yea that movement seems to have died down completely, bigger fish to fry I guess. Belarus has opened it's borders for visa-free entry to all the hostile countries around it, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia. So regular people have been coming here to buy cheap gas and food. Smart, super asymmetrical answer.
There's no relationship with Poland right now basically. They're the main sponsors of the US politics re Belarus, so it's been bad. But re migrants specifically, Poland has built a wall, useless as any wall, a media stunt that costs money. It's not in the news anywhere anymore, but the migrant issue has not gone away. Basically, the EU used to pay Belarus to catch illegal migrants before. Before all the shit hit the fan two years ago. Then they stopped and stopped all communications with Belarusian border patrol. I can't really corrobarate this, but from what I have heard, before, Belarusian border patrol used to get bonuses for catching illegal migrants to the EU, but when the conflict and the sanctions started, that stopped. So from the western media perspective this has been presented as Belarus helping these migrants cross the border. From this side, there is just no prevention anymore because the EU payments have stopped.
i've been making my own pizzas from scratch that have been turning out really well, proud of myself. if i want a soggy-soft crust i let it rise once, but for extra crust the secret is to let it rise twice. to make my pizza slav i added caraway seeds into the dough once. it really worked, but i'm not sure how italians would feel about it, i don't want to make enemies
mama mia thats a good a-pizza-pie :anti-italian-action: Marone!
Have you received your lukashenbuckos for your service as a russianbot? :lukashenko-tired: :07:
No it wasn't shut off like in Russia, nominally, but the effect is similar because many banks were sanctioned so western banks are afraid to deal with them. Internally, all the Visa/Mastercard cards work as usual, like in Russia, but unlike in Russia, I think, I can still use my US cards that I still have. In stores and online. What I can't do anymore is transfer my money from the US to here via Western Union, for example, but that was the company's choice I think. Luckily I moved most of my money by the end of Jan. Re trade with the west, here I don't know enough. Because it wasn't a full SWIFT shutoff and because sanctions have exemptions, I think some of that money still goes through as usual. Where it doesn't, stuff gets sold to the east. There is also a Russian replacement for SWIFT, SPFS, to which Belarus and many other countries are connected. Credit/debit card-wise there is Russian Mir and Chinese UnionPay to which Belarus is connected also, so those cards can also be used freely across the countries connected to that system.
lol i had to google )) not really, i like to cook so don't go too much. took my mom to some expensive Italian place, she dug it, but idk, i'm no michelin judge. also the number of KFCs in this country is too goddman high. there's a chain specializing on local cuisine, Vasilki (Centaureа, national flower), where for the first time ever I managed to got tipsy on kvass
