Belarus

[kurr]

Hello. I'm looking for facts about this country. No pedantic shit, please. Ive seen a book calling them the last Soviet republic or something. Is this accurate? Are they state socialist/Stalinist?

[DragonDrop]

speaking from the perspective of someone who has only read about belarus on wikipedia, and a few other sources, it seems as if they decided to make a smoother transition to capitalism than most other former SSRs, therefore by 1995 not much had changed since the 1980s. They also have an impressively low unemployment rate (lower even then Cuba at 0.07%), which is nice, and managed to maintain the highest HDI of the former SSRs. I think that they have been rolling back reforms in healthcare, and whatnot, however, so I think they are probably planning to gradually liberalize the economy. Also, recently, workers have not been getting payed by the state, on account of it not having a lot of money, so that sucks. The president, Alexander Lukashenko, has been elected every election year by a giant, something like 80% majority, but most observers (not including the CIS) call foul on the elections. The government regularly puts down protest movements, and actively tries to get rid of competition, and Human Rights authorities tend to call foul on the administration.
Revlefters, correct me if any of this is false.

[rundontwalk]

All I really know about Belarus is that Putin openly talks of annexing it (er, ''joining together'' or something.)

[Seblas]

I am not a expert on Belarus, far away, but if I am not misstaken have Belraus the last year moved more towards becomeing a liberal state. The economice crises become hard and the uneploymed rate should be much higer today then it was 5-6 years ago. I would not be suprise if Belarus will become a USA puppet state in the following years.

[rundontwalk]

I am not a expert on Belarus, far away, but if I am not misstaken have Belraus the last year moved more towards becomeing a liberal state. The economice crises become hard and the uneploymed rate should be much higer today then it was 5-6 years ago. I would not be suprise if Belarus will become a USA puppet state in the following years.
Belarus is firmly a Russian puppet state.

[Smyg]

Belarus is nothing more than a capitalist dicatorship.

[DragonDrop]

I am not a expert on Belarus, far away, but if I am not misstaken have Belraus the last year moved more towards becomeing a liberal state. The economice crises become hard and the uneploymed rate should be much higer today then it was 5-6 years ago. I would not be suprise if Belarus will become a USA puppet state in the following years.
I'm not an expert either, but I don't think Lukashenka & co. ever had the intent of not become a free market state, they just decided to do it slower, which was, as far as anything to do with becoming more capitalist can be, a better idea than the rest of the former Warsaw Pact countries had (it's never good for people to be shocked into neoliberalism like what happened in most of the former East).

[tir1944]

The best post-USSR state.
It's a paradise compared to its chaotic and corrupt neighbor Ukraine.

[Искра]

The best post-USSR state.
It's a paradise compared to its chaotic and corrupt neighbor Ukraine.

Pearl.

[tir1944]

Pearl.
Yep.What exactly are you arguing about?
There's law and order in Belarus,no prihvatizations,low unemployment and corruption,no mafia,gangsters,neonazis,vandals, no massive number of drug addicts,no abandoned children.Ukraine is a failed state.Belarus isn't.It's industry is actually growing at a rapid pace.
Just compare photos of Kiev and Minsk FFS.
After all you can Google for yourself.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

no prihvatizations


Nonsense. Privatisation was temporarily slowed (because of the bad results seen in Russia and Ukraine), but were not stopped entirely. Since the start of the "economic crisis", they have been accelerating again. For 2010-2013 period, the government has announced plans to privatise a significant amount of the enterprises still in state ownership. (http://www.netherlands.belembassy.org/eng/bilateralrelations/privatization/)


Just compare photos of Kiev and Minsk FFS.

Not too much difference, really. Minsk has seen some more wide new housing programs (less focus than in Ukraine and Russia on simply luxury things for the burgeoning bourgeoisie), but aside from this populist measure-- social problems are somewhat more severe in Ukraine because of the more heedless handling, but nevertheless, Belarus is heading down the exact same road, just more cautiously.

[tir1944]

PriHvatization comes from the word "prihvatit'=to receive/get something,referring to the outright criminal "Privatizations" done in many ex-socialist countries.;)

Atually Takayugi i agree with you that Belarus is (very) slowly deading down a similar road.However that must be vigilantly opposed and fought against.

[The CPSU Chairman]

Capitalist dictatorship. People call it "the last Soviet Republic" because it still has a KGB, didn't privatize quite as fast as its neighbors did, is relatively friendly with Russia, and doesn't take orders from the West. That's pretty much it.