Beer Lovers Party of Belarus, or BLP was one of several Beer Lovers Parties created in some post-Soviet states

Post-Soviet states

The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991...

, including Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

. It was officially registered on December 30, 1993.

According to its statute,

"the major goal of the BLP is the struggle for the cleanness and quality of the national beer, state independence and the neutrality of Belarus, freedom of economic relations, personal inviolability and the inviolability

Inviolability

In religion and ethics, inviolability or sanctity of life is a principle of implied protection regarding aspects of sentient life which are said to be holy, sacred, or otherwise of such value that they are not to be violated...

 of private property

Private property

Private property is the right of persons and firms to obtain, own, control, employ, dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community or government rather than by...

"

The Chairman was Andrey Romashevsky (Андрей Ромашевский).

In 1995 Romashevsky was arrested and imprisoned for burning the flag of the Byelorussian SSR

Byelorussian SSR

The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It was one of the four original founding members of the Soviet Union in 1922, together with the Ukrainian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...

 in public. He was detained for hooliganism

Hooliganism

Hooliganism refers to unruly, destructive, aggressive and bullying behaviour. Such behaviour is commonly associated with sports fans. The term can also apply to general rowdy behaviour and vandalism, often under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs....

 (“злостное хулиганство, совершенном с особым цинизмом”, "malicious hooliganism, perpetrated with a pronounced cynicism"), and after 3 months of imprisonment, on July 19, 1996 he received suspended sentence

Suspended sentence

A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...

 for two years of prison. Romashevsky denies that it was he who burned the flag, referring to a video of the event. Later he emigrated first to Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 and later to the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 and became a Czech citizen. After that the affairs of the party went into a disarray.

The party was liquidated in 1998 by the Belarus Superior Court. The declared reason of the liquidation of BLP (as well as of several other parties) was failure of the party to address the request of the Belarus Ministry of Justice about the membership statistics and management structure of the party.

The logo of the Party is an allusion to the "drunken hedgehog

Hedgehog

A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand . There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to the Americas...

" a stereotype from Russian jokes

Russian jokes

Russian jokes |transcribed]] anekdoty), literally anecdotes), the most popular form of Russian humour, are short fictional stories or dialogues with a punch line....

.