Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science (IIRPS VU), Bimonthly Review no. 19. August, Belarus Research Network on Neighborhood Policy, 2025.
This bimonthly review summarises key developments in Belarus in August 2025. It begins with security issues around the ZAPAD 2025 exercises, including nuclear signalling, Russian deployments and CSTO drills. It then turns to international politics, with the unprecedented Trump–Lukashenka phone call. The review highlights the worsening human rights situation, including ongoing repression, transborder persecution, and propaganda attacks. It also covers the activities of the Democratic Forces and the diaspora, such as the New Belarus Conference in Warsaw. The final section examines economic developments, focusing on slowing GDP growth, rising inflation, the diversion of bank profits to state financing, Belarus’s fuel supplies to Russia, and mixed agricultural results.