Civil initiatives in the Republic of Belarus: April-September 2011

Belarusian civil society continues to be under the influence of Belarusian authorities. This impacts on the course of implementation and effectiveness of the majority of civil society initiatives. The repressive policy of the authorities against civil society and the political opposition after the presidential election, which is characteristic to the period "after December 19", started to soften, though not significantly. This is due to the fact that the Belarusian authorities again began to show an interest in dialogue with the European Union, especially on the eve of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Poland (September 2011).