Belarus

Belarus is a  country in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia in the east and northeast, Ukraine in the south, Poland in the west, and Lithuania and Latvia in the northwest. With an area of ​​207,600 square kilometers (80,200 square miles) and a population of 9.3 million, Belarus is Europe's 13th largest and 20th most populous country. The country is administratively divided into seven regions. Minsk is the largest city in the capital.

Until the 20th century, different states, including the Grand Duchy of Kiev, the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Federation, and the Russian Empire, dominated modern Belarus' lands at different times. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917, various states fought for legitimacy during the civil war, eventually ending in the rise of the White Russian SSR and becoming the founding constituent of the Soviet Union in 1922. After the Polish-Soviet War, Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland. Many of the Belarusian borders were modernized in 1939, when some land in the Second Polish Republic was reintegrated after the Soviet invasion of Poland and completed after World War II. During World War II, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a quarter of its population and half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped after the war. In 1945, the Belarusian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations along with the Soviet Union.

The Republic Parliament declared Belarus sovereignty on July 27, 1990, and during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Belarus declared independence on August 25, 1991. After the adoption of the new constitution in 1994, Alexander Lukashenko was elected the first president of Belarus. After independence, the country's first and only free elections. Since then, he has been president. The Lukashenko administration is an authoritarian and has poor human rights records due to widespread human rights abuses. Belarus is the only country in Europe that officially uses the death penalty. Lukashenko has continued many policies of the Soviet era, including making most of the economy state-owned. In 2000, Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation and formed a coalition.

Belarus is a developing country and is ranked 53rd in the Human Development Index. It has been a member of the United Nations since its inception and has participated in the CIS, CSTO, EAEU, OSCE and Non-Aligned Movement. Although he does not wish to join the European Union, he still maintains bilateral relations with Brock and is also involved in two EU projects, the Eastern Partnership and the Baku Initiative.