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FORMER BELARUSIAN LEADER Stanislav Shushkevich has said that a historic document that proclaimed the death of the Soviet Union is missing from archives.
Shushkevich discovered the document was gone while working on his memoirs. “It’s hard to believe in the disappearance of a document of such level, but this is fact,” Shushkevich told The Associated Press.
He said he believes the document has been stolen, probably with the intention of selling it to a collector.
Officials with Belarus’ government and the Russia-dominated alliance of ex-Soviet nations have confirmed that they only have copies.
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“We don’t know where the original is,” said Vasily Ostreiko, the head of the archive department of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which has its headquarters in the Belarusian capital.
The agreement’s disappearance reflects the chaos that surrounded the Soviet demise.
On 8 December, 1991, Shushkevich hosted Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin and Ukraine’s President Leonid Kravchuk for secret talks at a government hunting lodge near Viskuli in the Belovezha Forest.
The trio signed a deal declaring that “the USSR has ceased to exist as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality,” defeating Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s attempts to hold the country together.
The agreement also announced the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose alliance joined by nine other Soviet republics later that month.
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Well said. A well written, brave piece. Best of luck to the author in her recovery. Hopefully in time she will realise that not all men are bad, and will be happy.
About a year ago there was a discussion on a message board about online escorting sites and these reviews. Being me I had to have a look and they really made me worry about the men who do this on a regular basis, paying for sex is one thing but expecting the person to treat you like are special or to give you the full girlfriend experience is really fucked up. You can buy all the sex you want but you can’t buy affection. Thanks for sharing your story Amy.
‘Amy,’ you’re an incredibly brave and insightful woman. It just makes me wonder about all the other young women in prostitution who are feeling as empty and dehumanized as you were, but aren’t able to make sense of it all or articulate it to someone who wants the best for them. I sincerely expect that your story can bring hope and inspiration to other women in the sex industry!
Thanks for that ‘Amy’. We need more of this kind of thing to explode the myth of the happy hooker. I never cease to be amazed at the amount of people who think prostitution is okay, but wouldn’t like to see their female family members and friends involved…The human mind is a peculiar thing.
During the Celtic ‘Tiger’ the FF/PD government turned a blind eye to the growth of the ‘sex industry’ – as if a form of slavery could be deemed acceptable. Lap dancing clubs sprung literally all over the country, even in agricultural backwaters. Opponents risked being classed as out of touch with modern trends, etc. It was all deplorable but part of the bling that showed the Irish had an ‘advanced’ economy. Looking under the hood to see the damage caused, well, that didn’t fit the narrative of the day.
The system and laws only pay lip service to this problem. Overly complicated, outdated and rarely used legislation are a disgrace. This isn’t the oldest "profession" in the world, it’s the oldest PROBLEM in the world!
There is a gender thing at work here. A slithering idiot who pays for sex betrays his own gender. A woman who believes that she can exploit a slithering idiot betrays her gender through that encounter.
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