BELARUS| Capital: | Minsk |
| Population: | 10,401,784 |
| Government type: | Republic |
| Location: | Eastern Europe, east of Poland |
| Area: | 207,600 km² |
| Land boundaries: | Total 3,098 km; Latvia 141 km, Lithuania 502 km, Poland 605 km, Russia 959 km, Ukraine 891 km |
| Ethnic groups: | Byelorussian (77.9%), Russian (13.2%), Polish (4.1%), Ukrainian (2.9%), other (1.9%) |
| Religions: | Eastern Orthodox (80%), other (including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) (20%) |
| Languages: | Byelorussian, Russian, other |
General
For centuries Belarus has been fought over, devastated, and partitioned among Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and, in World Wars I and II, Germany. After seven decades as a Soviet republic, the newly named Belarus declared its independence in August 1991. It has retained closer political and economic ties to Russia than any of the other former Soviet republics. On 25 December 1998, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko signed several agreements intended to provide greater political, economic, and social integration while preserving both states’ sovereignty.
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