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Between Poland and Russia.
Belarus is one of the former republics of the Soviet Union, its people ethnically different from the Russians. The official language is Belorusian, and Eastern Slavic language with Ruthenian roots. Eighty percent of those in Belarus are Easter Orthodox Christians. Ethnic Russians are 11 percent of the population. Belarus is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, former republics within the Soviet Union that today are closely associated with Russia economically, in defense and foreign policy.
Aleksandr Lukashenko began his political career in 1993 opposed to corruption and favoring "communist principles," values he grew up with in the Soviet Union. The Communist Party in Belarus survived the break up of the Soviet Union, and Lukashenko acquired disfavor from party bureaucrats and officials because of his attacks on favoritism. He was one of six candidates running in the first democratic election in Belarus, in 1994, and he ran as an independent against "the mafia" - those he had accused of corruption. He won a runoff election, sticking with the socialism of his youth by opposing privatization and market reforms. He was at odds with neighboring who former Soviet republics and undertaking reforms following the collapse of communism. Lukashenko tried to stabilize the economy of Belarus, and seeing himself as for the people, he doubled the minimum wage, reintroduced price controls and undid the few economic reforms that had preceded his precedence.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund stopped lending money to Belarus. To stay the economic course he was on and give socialism a chance to work, he increased his power, calling a referendum in November 1996 which won for him an extension of his term in office from four to seven years and gave him the power to close parliament. He banned the supporters of his opponents from work in television and radio, closed down opposition newspapers and stopped the distribution of hostile printed matter. And armed police took over the parliament building, locking out 89 deputies considered by his government as disloyal.
He blamed the countries economic failures on "economic saboteurs," foreign and domestic. He accused governments of conspiring against him and expelled the ambassadors from the U.S., Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Greece and Japan. He exported armaments to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Iran, Yugoslavia and Sudan. In 1999, at the beginning of the Kosovo War he supported Milosevic and proposed a "Slavic Union" consisting of Belarus, Russia and Yugoslavia.
Lukashenko continues to promote himself as a "man of the people." He holds Soviet-style May Day parades and is supported by what is left of Belarus' World War II, Soviet veterans. Feeling the hostility of the capitalist powers and his neighbors, he is hostile in return. The United States has announced that for refuge during the Iraq War of 2003 high ranking Iraqi officials had been given Belarusian passports.
Belarus has a working relationship with Russia, but relations between President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Lukashenko are strained.
Figures unless otherwise stated are from the CIA Factbook.
Estimated per capita GDP:
2007 $10,200 (Ranks 96th. Passes Brazil, Turkey and the
Domincan Republic.)
2006 $8,100
2005 $7,100
2004 $6,800
2003 $6,000
GDP annual growth rate estimated for 2007: 6.9 percent. (Ranks 48th)
Belarus describes its economy as "market socialism." This involves the state setting prices, state intervention in the management of private enterprises, and extensive regulations of industry. It imports more than it exports. Its largest trading partner by far is Russia, sending 59.8 percent of its exports there and 4.9 percent to Germany.
Belarus has no entrepreneurial class, and with an old Soviet style economy it has a more egalitarian distribution of income. The top 10 percent in household income in 1998 did 20 percent of the spending, and the lowest 10 percent of households did 5.1 percent. In the United States in 1997 these figures were 30.5 percent and 1.8 percent.
Military expenditures as a percentage of GDP: 1.4 (estimated for 2005).
2008: deaths: 13.92; births: 9.62, down from 10.83 in 2005.
Estimate for July 2008: 9.686 million, down from 9.7 million in 2007. Growth rate estimated for 2008: minus 0.393 percent per year.
More arriving than leaving, a net gain of 0.38 persons per 1,000 population.
Infant mortality estimated for 2008: 6.53, down from 13.37 in 2005 (deaths before the age of one year, per 1,000 live births)
Average life expectancy estimated for 2008: 70.34 years, up from 68.72 in 2005
Living with HIV/AIDS, ages 15 to 49: 3.9 percent (2003)
Belarus spends $85 per person on heath care (estimated in 2004). Its suicide rate for males is less than that of Russia but triple that of the U.S. and Sweden.
Chernobyl, in the northern Ukraine, is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Belarus border. It is said that because of the winds on April 26, 1986, 70 percent of the radioactive dust from the Chernobyl nuclear mishap fell on Belarus. This fallout is still an issue in Belarus, as is . soil pollution from pesticide use.
Nationmaster.com gives Belarussians a minus 8 percent net happiness rating, compared to plus 2 percent for Russians and an 84 percent rating for U.S. citizens. The most happy are listed as the people of Iceland, followed by the Danes, Swedes, Dutch, Australians and the Swiss.
http://www.belarusguide.com/main/index.html.
Posted by Frontline World, an article by Keli Dailey "A View From the Underground." You'll meet an anti-regime grandmother (babushka) and two anti-foreign skinheads who want to keep the Slavic race pure.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, had been limited to two terms in office. Through a constitutional referendum, held three days ago (the 17th) he overcome a limit to the number of terms he can serve as president. The results were reported 77 percent in his favor. He has been derided in the press of his neighboring former Soviet republics, including Russia. Lukashenko dismisses criticism from abroad, claiming to be the alternative in Belarus to instability.
Yesterday some young people marched to the president's residence with banners that read "no to tyranny." They were dispersed by baton-wielding police.
SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php
Copyright © 2008 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.