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Belarus
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The Dnieper (known as the Dnyapro in Belarus) is the largest river in Belarus; it flows southward, almost the entire length of the country in the east, passing through the city of Mahilyow. Its important tributaries are the Pripyat’ in the south and the Berezina in the central region. Another major river is the Daugava (Western Daugava), which flows westward from Russia through the northern tip of the republic. The Neman (known as the Nyoman in Belarus)... a west-flowing river, links the western part of Belarus with Lithuania. The Bug, a northward-flowing river along the country’s southwestern border with Poland, is linked at the city of Brest to a canal that connects with the Pripyat’ and subsequently the Dnieper. Belarus has thousands of lakes, the largest of which is Lake Narach in the northwest.
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The government of Belarus is a republic. The government is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and executive. The president... the chief of state, heads the executive branch. The head of government is the Prime Minister. The prime minister works with the first deputy prime minister and the deputy prime ministers to run the government. The legislative branch consists of a bicameral parliament, which is made up of the Council of the Republic and the Chamber of Representatives.
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Virtually all intercountry adoptions in Belarus have ceased since October 4, 2004, when Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenko asked his cabinet to look into international adoptions. The Government of Belarus changed its adoption procedures in 2005 but adoptions have yet to move forward. The Government of Belarus has not provided clear information on the possible duration of the apparent suspension or possible provisions for completing adoptions that were already in the pipeline before October 2004. The U.S. Government continues to be concerned about the future of adoptions from Belarus. The U.S. Embassy is in regular contact with Belarusian Government officials to seek clarification and continues to raise this issue with the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Department of State has ... expressed its concerns to the Belarusian Embassy in Washington.
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Belarus has no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in its possession. As a signatory to a number of arms reduction treaties, Belarus transferred all of its Soviet-era nuclear warheads to Russia in the 1990s. It does not possess biological or chemical warfare programs. Though Belarus inherited no major production or design facilities from the Soviet Union, a number of firms continue cooperation with Russian missile/space enterprises.
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Between August 21 and September 22, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, and Turkmenistan declared their independence. Simultaneously, Boris Yeltsin ordered the CPSU to suspend its activities on the territory of Russia and closed the Central Committee building at Staraya Ploschad. The Russian flag now flew beside the Soviet flag at the Kremlin. In light of these circumstances, Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary of the CPSU on August 24 and advised the Central Committee to dissolve. Gorbachev's hopes of a new Union were further hit when the Congress of People's Deputies dissolved itself on September 5. Though Gorbachev and the representatives of 8 republics (excluding Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) signed an agreement on forming a new economic community on October 18, events were overtaking Gorbachev.[5]
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After seven decades as a constituent republic of the USSR, Belarus attained its independence in 1991. It has retained closer political and economic ties to Russia than any of the other former Soviet republics. Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state union on 8 December 1999 envisioning greater political and economic integration. Although Belarus agreed to a framework to carry out the accord, serious implementation has yet to take place. Since his election in July 1994 as the country's first president, Alexandr LUKASHENKO has steadily consolidated his power through authoritarian means. Government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, and religion continue.globalEDGE | your source for global business knowledge
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