Belorussian Dissident Wants Confessor

Tatsyana Sevyarynets, mother of jailed Belorussian dissident Pavel Sevyarynets, is pushing for the KGB to allow her son access to a priest for confession as its post-USSR regulations allow. More here.

Independent Belarus or Soviet Belorussia?

Although it's been nearly twenty years since the collapse of the USSR the Belorussian government continues to harass religious groups and discourage Orthodox Christians' veneration of the New Martyrs of the Soviet Yoke. Unlike Russia, where churches remembering the New Martyrs have been built on multiple sites, in Belarus plans to build a memorial church on the site of a mass grave from Stalin's era have yet to be carried out. The KGB, which has retained its original name in the country, has also attempted to have icons of the New Martyrs removed from churches in Belarus. More on this and the treatment of other religious minorities can be found here.