THE GEOGRAPHY (Foreign Office UK)
Area: 207,600sq km
Population: 9,990,400 (beginning of
2001)
Capital City: Minsk (population 1.67m)
People: Belarusian (77.9%), Russian
(13.2%), Polish (4.1%), Ukrainian (2.9%),
other (1.9%)
Languages: Belarusian, Russian, other
Religions: Eastern Orthodox Christian
(80%), other (incl. Roman Catholic,
Protestant, Jewish and Muslim)
Currency: Belarusian rouble (BR)
Major political parties: Agrarian Party
(AP); Belarusian Labour Party (BLP);
Belarusian Communist Party (KPB);
Belarusian Popular Front (BPF);
Belarusian Social Democrat Hramada;
Social Democratic Party 'Narodnaya
Hramada'; Belarusian Socialist Party;
Conservative Christian Party of the
BPF; United Civic Party (UCP); Liberal
Democratic Party (LDBP); Republican
Party of Labour and Justice (RPPS);
Women's Party 'Nadzeya'
Form of government: Presidential
republic
GEOGRAPHY
Belarus is a landlocked country in
Eastern Europe and borders Russia,
Poland, Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania.
The terrain is mostly low-lying with
forests and flat marshes. The climate
is transitional between continental and
maritime: cold winters, warm & humid
summers.
THE HISTORY (Foreign Office UK)
Recent History
Throughout the 'perestroika' period
(1985-91), Belarus was under the
control of old-style Communist Party
authorities, who were nervous about
the nationalist aspirations articulated by
intellectuals. The devastation wrought
in 1986 by the Chernobyl disaster, (70%
of the radiation fell on Belarus,
contaminating one third of its
territory), alienated increasing
numbers of Belarusians. In July 1990,
the Belarusian Supreme Soviet
(Parliament) adopted a wide-ranging
Declaration of Sovereignty. Belarus
declared independence in August 1991
following the failed coup in Moscow.
In December 1991 Belarus became a
founding member of the
Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS). In March 1994, the
Communist-dominated Supreme Soviet
adopted Belarus' first post-Soviet
constitution. This switched the country
from a parliamentary to a presidential
form of government, under which the
president is popularly elected.
Presidential elections were held in July
1994. The populist, non-party
Alyaksandr Lukashenko (the former
manager of a state-owned farm) won
80% of the votes in the second round.
Pitching his message to a politically
inexperienced electorate disillusioned
with the early experience of economic
reform and concerned about declining
living standards, Lukashenko called for
a crackdown on crime and corruption,
renewed economic relations with
Russia and a halt to privatisation,
including that of land.
Parliamentary elections were held in
May 1995 for a unicameral parliament,
the 260-member Supreme Soviet. Low
turnout (with President Lukashenko
himself subtly discouraging his
countrymen from voting) and the
complexity of the voting system left
the legislature well short of the
quorum of 174 members required by
the constitution. The Soviet-era
parliament elected in 1990, the
Supreme Soviet (12th convocation),
filled the vacuum until an electoral
round was held in December 1995
which brought the total of members to
198 and finally achieved a quorum.
Relations between President
Lukashenko and the Supreme Soviet
were tense. Parliament resisted the
president's efforts to strengthen his
powers. It was supported by the
Constitutional Court, which overruled a
number of presidential decrees.
Lukashenko's solution was to re-write
the constitution, dissolve parliament
and put his own appointees in the
Constitutional Court.
In a heavily manipulated referendum
held in November 1996, President
Lukashenko won overwhelming
endorsement for a radically rewritten
constitution. The Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) declared the conduct of the
referendum to have been neither free
nor fair. Despite a ruling by the
Constitutional Court that the
referendum was unconstitutional,
Lukashenko declared the results to be
binding.
The new constitution gave the
president extensive powers relative to
those of the judiciary and replaced the
existing parliament with a bicameral
National Assembly with much weaker
powers. This consisted of a 110-seat
Chamber of Representatives (lower
house) and a 64-seat Council of the
Republic (upper house). The 110
members of the lower house were
appointed by Lukashenko, who selected
obedient members of the outgoing
parliament. The 64-member upper
house was created by a combination of
presidential appointments and the
results of the January 1997 elections
by Belarus' six regional councils and
Minsk city council. The new
constitution prolonged Lukashenko's
term in office for a further two years
to 2001.
Western governments refused to
recognise the new parliament, which
functioned as little more than a
rubber-stamp. The Supreme Soviet
(Thirteenth Convocation) was forcibly
dissolved. Those deputies who were
not invited to join the new Chamber of
Representatives declared themselves
still to be the rightful parliament. The
Constitutional Court was also dissolved
and was replaced by a new Court,
which had no right to examine
presidential decrees. Since 1996
Lukashenko has effectively ruled by
decree.
Accusing Lukashenko of staying in
power beyond his legitimate term, the
opposition decided to hold an
oppositional presidential election in May
1999. There were two candidates:
Paznyak and former premier Mikhail
Chyhir. The latter was arrested in
March 1999. Many believe the charge
of grand larceny was politically
inspired. He was sentenced to three
months' imprisonment, which
prevented him from conducting an
election campaign. The election was not
a success and few believed the
opposition's claims that over 50% of the
electorate had taken part. When
Lukashenko's term expired in July
1999, the opposition declared Sharetsky
the interim president.
THE ECONOMY (Foreign Office UK)
Basic Economic Facts
GDP: US$14,307 million (2002, IMF
data)
GDP per capita: US$1,562.6 (2002, IMF
data)
Annual GDP Growth: 4.7% (2002, IMF
data)
Inflation (Consumer Price Index): 42.6%
(2002, IMF data)
Major Industries: machine building and
metalworking, chemical and
petrochemical, food, electricity and
power generation, textiles,
woodworking, radio-electronics,
agriculture.
Major trading partners (2001): Russia,
Latvia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland,
Germany, UK, China, Estonia.
Aid & development: World Bank loan of
US$22.6 million (June 2001) to finance
repairs to schools, hospitals, homes
for orphanages
Exchange rate: US$1 = 2,019 Belarusian
rubles (April 2003)
Further information about Belarus'
economy can be found at: Trade
Partners UK Country Profile: Belarus
During the late Soviet period, Belarus
developed a significant industrial base
(defence industries, tractors, textiles,
etc) and its population enjoyed a
standard of living that was high for the
USSR together with a high level of
education. After the break-up of the
Soviet Union, Belarus retained this
industrial base. Agriculture is also a
significant part of the economy.
After initial attempts to liberalise
Belarus' post-Soviet economy, reform
slowed under Lukashenko. The majority
of all industry remains under the
control of the state and foreign
investment has been limited due to an
unfriendly business environment.
Recent falls in living standards have
implications for Lukashenko's
popularity, but it is unlikely that he will
do more than pay lip service to the
need for economic reform and foreign
investment.
President Lukashenko has based his
economic strategy on closer relations
with Russia. This has yielded some
benefits: some of Belarus' energy
debts to Russia have been written off
and others have been met on barter
terms. Belarus has also benefited from
the establishment of the CIS customs
union. However, Putin has indicated
that in the future Russia may not be so
willing to prop up the Belarusian
economy. And following the breakdown
of negotiations to buy into the
Belarusian gas transport network, the
Russian state gas monopolist Gazprom
recently threatened to stop supplying
gas to Belarus at low Russian domestic
prices.
During 2000 the National Bank of
Belarus (NBB) took steps to liberalise
the exchange market and successfully
eliminated the gap between the official
NBB rate and the real market level.
However, the NBB still faces the task
of keeping the exchange market stable
while finding a balance between the
importance of not printing money, the
lack of money available for financing
the country's needs and the desire to
prevent further devaluation of local
currency and inflation growth.
Co-operation with international
financial institutions has been difficult.
The hesitant reforms started in 1993
enabled Belarus to reach agreement
with the IMF on funds under the
Systemic Transformation Facility
(STF) and later, after difficult
negotiations, under a Stand-by
Agreement (SBA). Belarus almost
immediately breached the policy
conditions and the loan was suspended.
The IMF Resident Representative was
withdrawn from Minsk in July 1998,
but the IMF staff and the Belarusian
authorities continue to talk. There
remains however a Resident
Representative of the World Bank.
At the CIS summit in Yalta in
September 2003, the Presidents of
Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and
Ukraine agreed to the establishment of
a Single Economic Space which
envisages the free movement of goods,
services, capital and people between
the four countries.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Russia
Lukashenko has continued to pursue
close relations with Russia. Belarus is a
member of the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) established
when the USSR broke up in 1991. In
January 1995, Russia and Belarus
established a Customs Union (later
joined by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan).
At the same time, the two states
signed an agreement on military
cooperation, which allowed Russia to
lease several military facilities in
Belarus for 25 years. In April 1996,
Russia and Belarus signed a treaty
establishing the 'Community of
Sovereign Republics', which aimed to
deepen economic integration.
The Treaty on the formation of the
Union State was signed in Moscow in
December 1999. However relations
between Presidents Lukashenko and
Putin soured in 2002. In August 2002,
Putin humiliated Lukashenko by
proposing that Belarus be fully
absorbed as a component member of
the Russian Federation, or alternatively
that some kind of association based on
the EU be attempted (implying in the
first instance greater economic,
rather than political convergence).
Further tension has arisen in the
economic sphere because of Belarus'
customs policy, unsettled debts to
Russia and attempts to prevent the
expansion of Russian firms on the
Belarusian market. Putin publicly stated
in November 2002 that in the past
Russia had given too much to Belarus
and that now it was time to take
something back.
Moreover, early in 2003, it was
announced that Belarus would adopt the
Russian rouble as its currency by 1
January 2005, and full monetary union
would be achieved. Despite
Lukashenko's demands to the contrary,
it is clear that the only emission centre
for the single currency would be the
Russian Central Bank. Monetary union
along the lines envisaged by Putin would
only be possible following extensive
economic reforms in Belarus along the
Russian model, including significant
privatisation and liberalisation, and an
end to lax fiscal and monetary policies.
Given these demands, it seems unlikely
that the decision to achieve monetary
union by 2005 will be implemented. The
breakdown of the latest round of
negotiations on currency union in
October 2003 confirm this prognosis.
Union with Russia has been a central
part of Lukashenko's political platform,
but he has always sought to present
himself as an equal partner in the
relationship. He may now be going cold
on a union which is solely on Russia's
terms. A draft Constitutional Act for
the Union State has been prepared by
the Russia/Belarus joint parliamentary
commission but it appears to be more
form than substance. It would require
a referendum in Belarus and Russia to
be adopted.
In August 2003, Lukashenko gave a
press conference to Russian regional
media. Attempting to cover up his own
decreasing enthusiasm for union,
Lukashenko claimed that the process
was being hindered by the Russian
leadership, against the interests of the
Russian and Belarusian peoples. Putin
and Lukashenko met three times in
September 2003 (Sochi, Yalta &
Moscow) but no firm commitments
were made to closer union.
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