Belarus expels U.S. ambassador

[peejay 327]

Belarus expels U.S. ambassador

U.S. has introduced sanctions against Belarusian authorities

The Associated Press

updated 8:44 a.m. CT, Fri., March. 7, 2008

MINSK, Belarus - The Belarusian Foreign Ministry says it has expelled the U.S. ambassador and recalled its ambassador to the U.S.

The announcement Friday reflects growing tensions between the United States and the government of Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Washington has introduced travel restrictions on Lukashenko and members of his inner circle, as well as financial sanctions against Belarusian authorities over their crackdown on opposition and free media.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23519423

[Ban Hammer 14,269]

oh joy.

[peejay 327]

oh joy.

Yes...what a mess. My wife is currently trying to get a travel document from the Belarusian embassy in Washington, D.C. so she can return to Belarus with her expired Belarusian passport. She will be renewing her expired passport while she is in Belarus. Both my wife and stepdaughter will be flying to Moscow and taking the train back to Belarus in April. It is their first trip back there since leaving 4 years ago. Hopefully all this mess will not cause them any problems.

I am leery of her leaving the USA without a valid passport because she cannot return until a new one is issued, but she wants to do the trip now. I really wish she would wait until she gets US citizenship. Her US citizenship application is pending now.

[HAL 9000 96]

If the Cold War was really over you could sip a mojito in Cuba without worrying about violating a couple of Federal statutes.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

oh joy.

Yes...what a mess. My wife is currently trying to get a travel document from the Belarusian embassy in Washington, D.C. so she can return to Belarus with her expired Belarusian passport. She will be renewing her expired passport while she is in Belarus. Both my wife and stepdaughter will be flying to Moscow and taking the train back to Belarus in April. It is their first trip back there since leaving 4 years ago. Hopefully all this mess will not cause them any problems.

I am leery of her leaving the USA without a valid passport because she cannot return until a new one is issued, but she wants to do the trip now. I really wish she would wait until she gets US citizenship. Her US citizenship application is pending now.

There is a "hold up" with my invitation visa now. I have never had this problem before, then last week they said there was some kind of hold up that they (OVIR) can't explain.

Lukashenko is a jerk who needs to be taken out of power...only problem is that Russia/Kremlin/Putin is backing him with some heavy money.

[GaryC 7]

oh joy.

Yes...what a mess. My wife is currently trying to get a travel document from the Belarusian embassy in Washington, D.C. so she can return to Belarus with her expired Belarusian passport. She will be renewing her expired passport while she is in Belarus. Both my wife and stepdaughter will be flying to Moscow and taking the train back to Belarus in April. It is their first trip back there since leaving 4 years ago. Hopefully all this mess will not cause them any problems.

I am leery of her leaving the USA without a valid passport because she cannot return until a new one is issued, but she wants to do the trip now. I really wish she would wait until she gets US citizenship. Her US citizenship application is pending now.

I would really think long and hard about letting her go right now. If things get real nasty they may put a clamp down on travel all together. If she doesn't have a passport right she might not be able to get a new one.

[peejay 327]

oh joy.

Yes...what a mess. My wife is currently trying to get a travel document from the Belarusian embassy in Washington, D.C. so she can return to Belarus with her expired Belarusian passport. She will be renewing her expired passport while she is in Belarus. Both my wife and stepdaughter will be flying to Moscow and taking the train back to Belarus in April. It is their first trip back there since leaving 4 years ago. Hopefully all this mess will not cause them any problems.

I am leery of her leaving the USA without a valid passport because she cannot return until a new one is issued, but she wants to do the trip now. I really wish she would wait until she gets US citizenship. Her US citizenship application is pending now.

There is a "hold up" with my invitation visa now. I have never had this problem before, then last week they said there was some kind of hold up that they (OVIR) can't explain.

Lukashenko is a jerk who needs to be taken out of power...only problem is that Russia/Kremlin/Putin is backing him with some heavy money.

That is just the problem I was trying to explain to my wife. Once she returns to Belarus with her expired passport, she will be stranded until the government decides to issue her another passport. Her US Residency Green Card doesn't do her any good once she leaves the USA with an expired Belarusian passport. She can go back to Belarus, but can't come back to the USA until she has a new valid passport. No airline in Moscow will let her board an airplane back to the USA without a valid passport.

Belarus still operates under the old Soviet propiska system of controlled residency. When she left Belarus she sold her flat, took the train to Moscow, and flew to the USA with her K-1 visa. She now has no propiska and will have to explain where she has been for 4 years. She never registered with the government that she was leaving Belarus. Before she can even apply for a new passport, she will have to find someone with enough unoccupied square meters in their residence and will have to register residency there. My wife is confident from talking to the Belarusian embassy in Washington that there will be no problems. As for me, I worry about the deteriorating realations between the USA, Belarus, and Russia. I don't like even the slight possibility that she could get stranded there.

Believe it or not...Lukashenko is relatively popular with a lot of the Belarusian people. Ditto for Putin and the Russian people. I'm no fan of the communists, Putin, or Lukashenko; but Bush and company bear a huge amount of the blame in the deteriorating relations that are occurring now with Belarus and Russia. They pushed NATO to Russia's doorstep, are setting up missles there too, and have actively funded internal opposition inside their countries. What did we expect? We don't have to approve of their governments or their internal policies, but we shouldn't be antagonizing them either. Bush has squandered the peace dividend we got from the ending of the Cold War. To what end?

[peejay 327]

oh joy.

Yes...what a mess. My wife is currently trying to get a travel document from the Belarusian embassy in Washington, D.C. so she can return to Belarus with her expired Belarusian passport. She will be renewing her expired passport while she is in Belarus. Both my wife and stepdaughter will be flying to Moscow and taking the train back to Belarus in April. It is their first trip back there since leaving 4 years ago. Hopefully all this mess will not cause them any problems.

I am leery of her leaving the USA without a valid passport because she cannot return until a new one is issued, but she wants to do the trip now. I really wish she would wait until she gets US citizenship. Her US citizenship application is pending now.

I would really think long and hard about letting her go right now. If things get real nasty they may put a clamp down on travel all together. If she doesn't have a passport right she might not be able to get a new one.

My wife keeps telling me, "How can they refuse?" A passport under the propiska system is much different than having a US passport. We (US citizens) don't have to have a passport. They are required to have a passport. I'm no expert on these things since I have never lived under such a system. Americans can live anywhere we want to and can move at will. Here is what I read about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propiska

I still have my grandmother's old Tsarist internal passport she brought with her when she immigrated to the USA before the Bolshevik Revolution. Residency control is nothing new in that part of the world.