MrWeb's MR-a-thon

Belarus is flat (its highest point is Dzyarzhynsk Hill, at 345m...), green (40% is covered by forest) and landlocked. The country has been governed since 1994 by Alexander Lukashenko, who in his own words adopts 'an authoritarian ruling style' - Western powers have described the regime as a dictatorship. The Council of Europe barred the country from membership as long ago as 1997 for election irregularities, and since the last vote, in 2010, many opposition candidates have been arrested and imprisoned. Lukashenko pursues Soviet-style policies including state ownership of the economy; the country has strong ties with Russia and there has been talk of a political union between the two.

The territory of the modern state has been divided among neighbouring countries throughout most of history, although some regard the powerful 13th-15th century Grand Duchy of Lithuania as essentially a Belarusian state. The territory was devastated by World War II, losing about a third of its population - it was the last Soviet republic to be evacuated by the Germans, who destroyed 209 of its 290 cities, 85% of its industry and more than one million buildings.As if that weren't enough, about 70% of the radiation the 1986 Chernobyl disaster came across the border from Ukraine, and twenty years later about a fifth of Belarusian land continues to be affected by fallout. Yet despite its many problems, the country has the highest Human Development Index score of the ten former Soviet states included in the CIS.