Its population is also aging; the median age of 3034 is estimated to rise to between 60 and 64 in 2050. [230] Belarus applied to become a member of the World Trade Organization in 1993. [153], After the December completion of the 2010 presidential election, Lukashenko was elected to a fourth straight term with nearly 80% of the vote in elections. The US has given hundreds of millions of dollars to Zimbabwe, a country with one of the most anti-American voting records in the UN. [205] Each region has a provincial legislative authority, called a region council (Belarusian: ; Russian: ), which is elected by its residents, and a provincial executive authority called a region administration (Belarusian: ; Russian: ), whose chairman is appointed by the president. President Aleksander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, has flatly denied the seriousness of the pandemic, refusing to impose a lockdown, close schools, or cancel mass events like the Belarusian football league or the Victory Day parade. [206] The Regions are further subdivided into 118 raions, commonly translated as districts (Belarusian: ; Russian: ). Dallas, TX: SIL International. Under the 1994 constitution, the president could serve for only two terms as president, but a change in the constitution in 2004 eliminated term limits. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Belarus&oldid=1141790380. [120] Norway and Japan have joined the sanctions regime which aims to isolate Belarus from the international supply chain. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is in the midst of a three-day visit to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping . Treaties in 1995 and 1996 demarcated Belarus's borders with Latvia and Lithuania, and Belarus ratified a 1997 treaty establishing the Belarus-Ukraine border in 2009. [65], The Belarusian People's Republic was the first attempt to create an independent Belarusian state under the name "Belarus". The currency was introduced in May 1992 to replace the Soviet ruble and it has undergone redenomination twice since then. Lukashenko won the election with 80% of the vote; the Russian Federation and the CIS deemed the vote open and fair[152] while the OSCE and other organizations called the election unfair. Not surprisingly, it took time for perestroika and glasnost to take root there, leaving the Communist establishment strong. [256] Belarusian, although not as widely used as Russian, is the mother tongue of 53.2% of the population, whereas Russian is the mother tongue of only 41.5%.[255]. ., 2006.. ", "Coordinates of the extreme points of the state frontier. The number of people employed in the industry is 34.7% of the working population. These territorial units may also be classified as a city of regional or raion subordination, urban-type settlement or rural settlement, but whose government is administered by the council of another primary or basic unit. We do not recognize him but we must deal with him", U.S. no longer recognizes Lukashenko as legitimate president of Belarus, "Belarus election: UK refuses to recognise result and demands international investigation into 'grisly repression' of protests", "Canada denounces Lukashenko's inauguration in Belarus, preparing sanctions over human rights violations", "U.S., EU Sanction Belarus in Coordinated Western Action", "Britain and Canada impose sanctions on Belarus leader Lukashenko", "Ukraine conflict: UK sanctions Belarus for role in Russian invasion", "EU bans 70% of Belarus exports to bloc with new sanctions over Ukraine invasion", "Could Russia's Reliance on Belarus be its Soft Underbelly? [40], From 5000 to 2000 BC, the Bandkeramik predominated in what now constitutes Belarus, and the Cimmerians as well as other pastoralists roamed through the area by 1,000 BC. [138] The Council of the Republic has the power to select various government officials, conduct an impeachment trial of the president, and accept or reject the bills passed by the House of Representatives. The European Union and the United Kingdom did not recognise the result and the EU imposed sanctions. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) ruled that the elections were unfair because opposition candidates were arbitrarily denied registration and the election process was designed to favor the ruling party. Much of the northern section of this area was added to the Byelorussian SSR, and now constitutes West Belarus. Receiving heavy sponsorship from the government, ice hockey is the nation's second most popular sport after football. . .., 1939.80 . i . Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state union on 8 December 1999 envisioning greater political and economic integration. "Red was the colour . [205] Each raion has its own legislative authority, or raion council, (Belarusian: ; Russian: ) elected by its residents, and an executive authority or raion administration appointed by oblast executive powers. Xi, C hina's most powerful figure in decades, has no formal role in the National People's Congress, which will convene a meeting of its . The law was compared with serfdom by Lukashenko himself. The Zarubintsy culture later became widespread at the beginning of the 1st millennium. For criminal cases, the highest court of appeal is the Supreme Court. [73][74] Nonetheless, compared to the (larger) Ukrainian minority, Belarusians were much less politically aware and active, and thus suffered fewer repressions than the Ukrainians. [219], The currency of Belarus is the Belarusian ruble. [247] There are about 0.87 males per female in Belarus. [227] In 2006, GDP amounted to US$83.1 billion in purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars (estimate), or about $8,100 per capita. [129] The United Nations and other agencies have aimed to reduce the level of radiation in affected areas, especially through the use of caesium binders and rapeseed cultivation, which are meant to decrease soil levels of caesium-137. From manipulated elections, to a centrally planned economy, Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. Though the opposition candidates, mostly associated with the pro-independence Belarusian Popular Front, took only 10% of the seats,[89] Belarus declared itself sovereign on 27 July 1990 by issuing the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. [164] Travel bans imposed by the European Union have been lifted in the past in order to allow Lukashenko to attend diplomatic meetings and also to engage his government and opposition groups in dialogue. The national awakening in today's Belarus is especially striking because it is taking place in a country that had previously clung to the traditions, symbols, and narratives of the USSR with more enthusiasm than any other former Soviet republic. Washington, Mar 4 (PTI): Communist China is the strongest and the most disciplined enemy that the United States has ever faced, Republican presidential aspirant Nikki Haley said on Friday as she slammed the ruling Democratic Party as a 'socialist' part. To the left of this baby, on a bank of red and pink roses, luscious and so alive, a banner is unfurled; it reads 'COMMUNIST PARTY'. [249][250] Minorities also practice Greek Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and neo-paganism. By one hypothesis the word derives from the Old Prussian name Gudwa, which, in turn, is related to the form udwa, which is a distorted version of Sudwa, Sudovia. [148][149] Re-admission of the country into the council is dependent on the completion of benchmarks set by the council, including the improvement of human rights, rule of law, and democracy. [122] Three major rivers run through the country: the Neman, the Pripyat, and the Dnieper. Stalin's purges 1930s - Belarus. The Communist Party of China is the founding and sole governing political party of the People's Republic of China. [82] This policy involved sending Russians from various parts of the Soviet Union and placing them in key positions in the Byelorussian SSR government. The contested lands were divided between Poland and the Soviet Union after the war ended in 1921, and the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. Amnesty International,[101] and Human Rights Watch[102] have criticized Lukashenko's violations of human rights. Belarusian literature[259] began with 11th- to 13th-century religious scripture, such as the 12th-century poetry of Cyril of Turaw. In: Zeitschrift fr Slawistik 45 (2000), 200214. The depreciation was even steeper on the black market and financial collapse seemed imminent as citizens rushed to exchange their rubles for dollars, euros, durable goods, and canned goods. 449474, This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 20:35. [85][86], By the late 1980s, political liberalization led to a national revival, with the Belarusian Popular Front becoming a major pro-independence force. [52][53], The Lithuanian nobles were forced to seek rapprochement with the Poles because of a potential threat from Muscovy. [136] The National Assembly is a bicameral parliament comprising the 110-member House of Representatives (the lower house) and the 64-member Council of the Republic (the upper house). [79] Most of Western Belarus became part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941, but in 1943 the German authorities allowed local collaborators to set up a client state, the Belarusian Central Council. American taxpayers still give money to Communist China for. Jahrhundert. Incorporation into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania resulted in an economic, political and ethno-cultural unification of Belarusian lands. Several poets and authors went into exile after the Nazi occupation of Belarus and would not return until the 1960s. [120], Belarus lies between latitudes 51 and 57 N, and longitudes 23 and 33 E. Its extension from north to south is 560km (350mi), from west to east is 650km (400mi). After the war, it was estimated that 2.2 million local inhabitants had died and of those some 810,000 were combatantssome foreign. [212] In October 1995, a presidential decree abolished the local governments of cities of raion subordination and urban-type settlements which served as the administrative center of raions, demoting them from administrative-territorial units to territorial units. While Russia is no longer communist, its president, Vladimir Putin, considers the fall of the Soviet Union the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century" and is currently (as of. [194] In an interview from September 2020 Lukashenko claimed that detainees faked their bruises, saying, "Some of the girls there had their butts painted in blue". Angela Davis, 79, was . [57], Under Nicholas I and Alexander III the national cultures were repressed. List of Every Communist Country in the World as of 2021: China. Settlements without their own local council and executive committee are called territorial units (Belarusian: ; Russian: ). [261] The modern era of Belarusian literature began in the late 19th century; one prominent writer was Yanka Kupala. Belarus is not in the European Union (EU). At the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Belarus was one of the world's most industrially developed states by percentage of GDP as well as the richest CIS member-state. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective and add more content related to non-recent events. The biggest of these was the Soviet Union (The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) which was made up of countries such as Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Ukraine, Georgia and a number of other countries. Average Belarusians still remember his heyday - and the pledges that never came through. [220][221] Important agricultural products include potatoes and cattle byproducts, including meat. Open. The Belorussian senior group earned bronze at the 2012 London Olympics. A panel of US lawmakers tasked with scrutinizing Beijing held a debut hearing Tuesday overshadowed by protests from the public gallery as it focused on the "existential" threat of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.Committee chairman Mike Gallagher gave a sweeping introduction outlining "The Chinese Communist Party's Threat to America" -- the title of the hearing -- aided by a multimedia . The runner-up opposition leader Andrei Sannikov received less than 3% of the vote; independent observers criticized the election as fraudulent. [272], Belarusian cuisine consists mainly of vegetables, meat (particularly pork), and bread. In 2015, 39.3% of Belarusians were employed by state-controlled companies, 57.2% were employed by private companies (in which the government has a 21.1% stake) and 3.5% were employed by foreign companies. [219] In 2005, nearly a quarter of the population was employed by industrial factories. The first one was the 2004 RussiaBelarus energy dispute when Russian energy giant Gazprom ceased the import of gas into Belarus because of price disagreements. Upon the death of Kievan Rus' ruler Yaroslav I the Wise in 1054, the state split into independent principalities. [189] Belarus is the only European country still using capital punishment having carried out executions in 2011. Kazulin was detained and beaten by police during protests surrounding the All Belarusian People's Assembly. [122], Natural resources include peat deposits, small quantities of oil and natural gas, granite, dolomite (limestone), marl, chalk, sand, gravel, and clay. Beltelecom is the only operator licensed to provide commercial VoIP services in Belarus. [213], As for 2019, the administrative-territorial and territorial units include 115 cities, 85 urban-type settlements, and 23,075 rural settlements. [225] GDP only began to rise in 1996;[226] the country was the fastest-recovering former Soviet republic in the terms of its economy. The Belarusian Constitution forbids the use of special extrajudicial courts. "We wish you success . [37], In Lithuanian, besides Baltarusija (White Russia), Belarus is also called Gudija. But since the mid-20th century, the number of Jews has been reduced by the Holocaust, deportation, and emigration, so that today it is a very small minority of less than one percent. Around 1840 the Statutes were banned by the Russian tsar following the November Uprising. [261], The last major revival of Belarusian literature occurred in the 1960s with novels published by Vasil Byka and Uladzimir Karatkievich. [262], After Belarus was incorporated into the Soviet Union, the Soviet government took control of the Republic's cultural affairs. [200] Following the granting of humanitarian visas to an Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya and her husband, Poland also accused Belarus for organizing a hybrid warfare as the number of migrants crossing the BelarusPoland border sharply increased multiple times when compared to the 2020 statistics. [155][156] Six months later amid an unprecedented economic crisis, activists utilized social networking to initiate a fresh round of protests characterized by wordless hand-clapping. [130][131], Belarus borders five countries: Latvia to the north, Lithuania to the northwest, Poland to the west, Russia to the north and the east, and Ukraine to the south. A famed Black Panther who's also a communist has faced calls to pay reparations after discovering her ancestors were white puritans who arrived in the US on the Mayflower. Ever since the emergence of statehood in the territory of Belarus and up to the end of the 18th century, the country belonged to the Western, rather than Eastern, tradition of Christianity.. [192], On 1 September 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights declared that its experts received reports of 450 documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of people who were arrested during the protests following the presidential election. Around the 5th century, the area was taken over by the Slavs. Belarus Appeals To IMF For $8bln Rescue Loan. [57], Joseph Stalin implemented a policy of Sovietization to isolate the Byelorussian SSR from Western influences. Users of this site are cautioned that new general licenses may be enacted, revoked or amended at any time; accordingly, the list and attachments made . However, the future of the union has been placed in doubt because of Belarus's repeated delays of monetary union, the lack of a referendum date for the draft constitution, and a dispute over the petroleum trade. [248] Roman Catholicism is practiced mostly in the western regions, and there are also different denominations of Protestantism. [266] The National Academic Theatre of Ballet in Minsk was awarded the Benois de la Dance Prize in 1996 as the top ballet company in the world. Belarus, country of eastern Europe. It is time to fight back against communism. This is only a partial archive of certain expired general licenses likely to be of interest -- it is not an exhaustive list of every general license that may relate to OFAC sanctions programs. Typically, Belarusians eat a light breakfast and two hearty meals later in the day. MINSK, March 1. [231], The labor force consists of more than four million people, among whom women hold slightly more jobs than men. A national constitution was adopted in March 1994 in which the functions of prime minister were given to the President of Belarus. It is one of the most equal countries in the world,[215] with one of the lowest Gini-coefficient measures of national resource distribution, and its ranks 82nd in GDP per capita .Belarus has trade relations with over 180 countries. [175] However, Belarus suspended its participation in the Eastern Partnership program on 28 June 2021, after the EU imposed more sanctions against the country. It's just that, IMO, the data from the whole post-communist region show that the countries that adopted shock therapy fully actually ended Anyone who remembers Ukraine in 1989. As an OSCE member state, Belarus's international commitments are subject to monitoring under the mandate of the U.S. Helsinki Commission. Several state holidays, such as Independence Day and Victory Day, draw big crowds and often include displays such as fireworks and military parades, especially in Vitebsk and Minsk. This figure represented a staggering quarter of the prewar population. A court on Friday sentenced Belarus' top human rights advocate and one of the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, to 10 years in prison. Andrei Arlovski, who was born in Babruysk, Byelorussian SSR, is a current UFC fighter and the former UFC heavyweight champion of the world. [121] It is landlocked, relatively flat, and contains large tracts of marshy land. [177], Most of Belarus's service members are conscripts, who serve for 12 months if they have higher education or 18 months if they do not. [235] On 1 June 2011, Belarus requested an economic rescue package from the International Monetary Fund. [265][bettersourceneeded], After the Second World War, music focused on the hardships of the Belarusian people or on those who took up arms in defense of the homeland. Another hypothesis connects the word with the Gothic Kingdom that occupied parts of the territory of modern Belarus and Ukraine in the 4th and 5th centuries. Economically, Belarus involved itself in the CIS, Eurasian Economic Community, and Union with Russia. He was named by Svetlana Alexievich, the Belarusian winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2015, as "her main teacher, who helped her to find a path of her own". We give money to Belarus, which is Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's closest ally. An influential author who devoted his work to awakening the awareness of the catastrophes the country has suffered, was Ales Adamovich. [139], The government includes a Council of Ministers, headed by the prime minister and five deputy prime ministers. It has retained closer political and economic ties to Russia than have any of the other former Soviet republics. Sudovia, in its turn, is one of the names of the Yotvingians. [87][88], In March 1990, elections for seats in the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR took place. Opposition parties are permitted, but they have had little electoral success. Russia agrees to sell Belarus gas at 60% below the price charged to other European countries, . Washington CNN The US and NATO believe that Belarus could "soon" join Russia in its war against Ukraine, US and NATO officials tell CNN, and that the country is already taking steps to do. [196] In May 2021, Lukashenko threatened that he will flood the European Union with migrants and drugs as a response to the sanctions. Laos (Lao People's Democratic Republic) North Korea. The Americans and British feared. These articles were aimed to defend the rights of the Lithuanian nobility within the duchy against Polish and other nobles of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth. After the failed revolt, the Russian government reintroduced the use of Cyrillic to Belarusian in 1864 and no documents in Belarusian were permitted by the Russian government until 1905. The third Article of the Statutes established that all lands of the duchy will be eternally within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and never enter as a part of other states. [citation needed]. The takeover was partially due to the lack of military coordination of the Balts, but their gradual assimilation into Slavic culture was peaceful in nature. [207] It is run by an executive committee and has been granted a charter of self-rule.[208]. 275-316) The Romanian Patronal System of Public Corruption (pp. Its net migration rate is +0.38 per 1,000, indicating that Belarus experiences slightly more immigration than emigration. Main Geographic Characteristics of the Republic of Belarus", "Belarus: Window of Opportunity (see Table 15, page 66)", "An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm", "The United Nations and Chernobyl The Republic of Belarus", "Ecological reservation in Belarus fosters new approaches to soil remediation", "Country Report: Belarus Borders: Borders and policy in Belarus", "SectionIV:The President, Parliament, Government, the Courts", "Deputy Prime Ministers of the Republic of Belarus", "Interview with Belarus President Lukashenko", "Analysis | Can people power topple Europe's 'last dictator'? [255] Minorities also speak Polish, Ukrainian and Eastern Yiddish. [90], Mass protests erupted in April 1991 and became known as the 1991 Belarusian strikes. The republic was created in 1920 following the staged rebellion of soldiers of the 1st LithuanianBelarusian Division of the Polish Army under Lucjan eligowski. [116][117] Further sanctions were imposed in 2022 following the country's role in the invasion of Ukraine. People with old Belarusian national flags shout during an opposition rally in August in Minsk, Belarus. NATO used to be much smaller, and it is only since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the break up of the Warsaw pact, the communist equivalent to NATO, that the organisation swelled its. The victims were hospitalized with intramuscular bleeding of the rectum, anal fissure and bleeding, and damage to the mucous membrane of the rectum. so the map above is more of a modern representation of the countries that formerly made up East Europe. [168] In 1996, Lukashenko called for a controversial vote to extend the presidential term from five to seven years, and as a result the election that was supposed to occur in 1999 was pushed back to 2001. ", "Snapshot of the Belarus Country Profile", "UN human rights experts: Belarus must stop torturing protesters and prevent enforced disappearances", "Lukashenko blames Americans and drunks for Belarus protests", "EU imposes sanctions on Belarusian economy", "Belarus dictator threatens to 'flood EU with drugs and migrants', "Belarus dictator weaponizes illegal migrants against EU", "In Lithuania, Migrants Find Themselves Caught in a Geopolitical Battle", "Baltarusijos pareignai su skydais blokuoja migrant grinim: kadrai i pasienio", "Poland accuses Belarus of sending migrants over border as "living weapons" in "hybrid war", "Poland Says Belarus Is Letting Migrants Cross Border In 'Hybrid War' With EU", "Lukaenkos kerto akcija pasiek ir Latvij: i savait rykus nelegali migrant skaiiaus uolis", "US, EU, UK and Canada Announce New Belarus Sanctions", "SectionI: Principles of the Constitutional System. In culture and social life, both the Polish language and Catholicism became dominant, and in 1696, Polish replaced Ruthenian as the official language, with Ruthenian being banned from administrative use. ( ).-, 1940. There were 679,000 unemployed Belarusians, two-thirds of whom were women. [203] On 2 December 2021, the United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Canada imposed new sanctions on Belarus. [42] Invaders from Asia, among whom were the Huns and Avars, swept through c. 400600 AD, but were unable to dislodge the Slavic presence.[43]. Other notable Belarusian sportspeople include cyclist Vasil Kiryienka, who won the 2015 Road World Time Trial Championship, and middle-distance runner Maryna Arzamasava, who won the gold medal in the 800m at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics. [222] In 1994, Belarus's main exports included heavy machinery (especially tractors), agricultural products, and energy products. Current Communist Countries: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. The referendum on the extension was denounced as a "fantastic" fake by the chief electoral officer, Viktar Hanchar, who was removed from the office for official matters only during the campaign. Also, the Belarusian Byzantine Catholic Church was formed by the Poles in order to bring Orthodox Christians into the See of Rome. Belarus "fully agrees with and supports China's position and proposals on a political solution to the Ukraine crisis, which is of great significance to resolving the crisis," CCTV quoted . (Eng.