Belarus could potentially occupy a privileged position on the European waterway network, but the country is handicapped by restrictions on its main waterway route from Brest to the Dnepr in Ukraine. Historically it had connections both west through Poland (via the river Bug, q.v.) and north through the 19th century Berezina Canal, the southern Dvina and the Daugava to the Latvian port of Riga. The Berezina Canal has long been abandoned (although German navigator and writer Bodo Muller published in 1994 a gripping account of his voyage through what remains of the canal in an inflatable craft), while the link to Poland is blocked by a weir on the Bug, and poor navigability of this free-flowing river. The Belarus Government has undertaken to carry out pre-feasibility studies of high-capacity waterways on both these routes. In the meantime, the only access to Belarus is from Ukraine, via the Dnepr…