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Belarus: Russian Ruble
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The majority of the population of Belarus are native Belarusians, who comprise 81.2% of the total population of 10,293,011 people. Russians are the second largest group, making up 11.4% of the population. Poles and Ukrainians account for 3.9% and 2.4% of the population, respectively.
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Belarus is very much the boundary between Latin Christianity and Orthodox Christianity. About 70% of Byelorussians are Eastern Orthodox; with the rest being made up of Catholics (remnants of the old Polish influenced aristocrats), Protestants (what remains of the German population of Belarus) and Muslims (Tartar descendents) as well as some Jewish peoples from the time when the USSR had Belarus as an exile point for Jewish Russians.
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On New Year's Eve, Belarus reluctantly agreed to a doubling of natural gas prices and a gradual shift to market prices by 2011. The deal ... provided for the Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom to acquire a 50 percent stake in the gas pipeline system owned by Belarus.
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Belarus ties the signing of two agreements on the single currency to a couple of other agreements, unacceptable to the Russian side. The Belarussians want Russia to finance their budget deficit and to grant them a $2 billion compensation loan.
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Since president Lukashenka came to power, the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus was given more official support. This was particularly evident in tax breaks that allowed the Church to become a large-scale exporter of tax-free vodka and cigarettes. A new religion law was passed in Belarus that does not have the support of the Catholics and the Protestants as well as other believers, who complain that it discriminates them, giving many preferences to Russian Orthodox Church.
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As with almost all political and economic issues in Belarus, there is ... a Russian angle. Some observers point to the expanding government privatization efforts and maintain that the removal of key factory directors is a way to ensure that the Lukashenko-designed privatization plan proceeds unchecked.
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