Press Coverage of Belarus, A Newly Independent Country in Transition

Abstract

1991 the heads of founder states of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, that is Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine met at a picturesque natural reserve Belarus is proud of, called Belovezhskaya Pushcha, to conclude that the USSR ceased to exist as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality and to establish the Commonwealth of Independent States. Prior to the event Belarus had already declared its sovereignty and independence but did so following the examples of Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine rather than seeking independence itself. When with the collapse of the Soviet Rule independence came somewhat automatically, it caught many Belarusians off-guard and unprepared. With no recent experience of economic autonomy and barely any history as a sovereign state (for Belarus spent most part of its history as a province of Russia, Poland or Lithuania), Belarus began a difficult transition toward a market-oriented economy and to greater self-determination and democracy.