July 27, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. The number of fires in the Vitebsk region decreased by 17% in the first half of the year, as reported to BELTA correspondent by Marina Fando, press secretary of the Vitebsk Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

The sound of the violin by the famous Italian master Antonio Stradivari is truly captivating. The secret of his instruments remains unsolved to this day.

Explaining the reasons for the negative assessments that the observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) regularly gives to elections in Russia and Belarus, the politician believes that this is caused both by subjective reasons and by the fact that the electoral systems in both Belarus and Russia are more open than in some Western European states. "The negativity that is poured onto Belarus is unjustified. Many Western states should learn from it how to conduct election campaigns," he is confident.

This is provided for in the Investment Program of the city of Vitebsk for 2013, which was approved at a meeting of the Vitebsk City Council of Deputies.