Thread: Belarus!

Originally Posted by Crocodile

However, among other things, the "халява" usually contributes to the corruption.

Agreed. Maybe Luka has hid something for a rainy day, but it still can't be compared to the amount of money stolen by our authorities. Most of this "халява" is spent on social programs in Belarus to keep Lukashenko popular.

Think about it this way: Belarus occupies 207,600 sq km with population of less than 10 million (less than Moscow alone). Statistically speaking, Belorussians have so much unused land that they can install several wind turbines per person (figuratively speaking) and start exporting energy rather than importing it.

And chop down all this beatiful forests? Bialowieza Forest in particular? Poor little aurochs, sniff. I'm calling Greenpeace now! The nasty Croc wants to turn beautiful Belorussian forests into huge carlson beehive!

Originally Posted by Basil77

And chop down all this beatiful forests? Bialowieza Forest in particular? Poor little aurochs, sniff.

According to http://www.president.gov.by/press44857.html, there are less than 10 million Ha * 0.01 sq km = 100,000 sq km (less than 50%) of forest. The largest wind farm to-date is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Wind_Farm and it covers 1,000 sq km. So, theoretically, you can place as many as 100 of the largest wind farms in the world in the non-forested land of Belarus. (And the fact that the wind farm is the largest does not imply it's the most efficient. There are lots of ways to improve.)

That is not to say I propose doing that, but just to show that Belarus has much more options than the corrupted government can offer.

Originally Posted by Basil77

I'm calling Greenpeace now!

Those guys are of my colour, so think twice before doing that.

I think it would be nice if Belarus was in the EU but remained very close with Russia at the same time.

I wonder if it would be possible to be in that Russian speaking free trade area I've read about, and in EU at the same time? Or would they be mutually exclusive...?

Belarus is a perfectly sized country for the EU, both geographically and population-wise. But I doubt Lukashenko is interested, PLUS the EU is very strict on some criteria relating to democracy, human rights and economy which Belarus doesn't meet at the moment (yes I know that this is hypocrisy and double standards..... )

But if Belarus met the EUs criteria I don't think there would be any problem at all; probably the application would be fast-tracked. Some of the Eastern European countries were fast tracked into the EU before they actually met the economic criteria in full, like Romania.

Like I said before; I support the idea of the EU simply because it guarantees peace and helps us in Europe remain competitive and strong enough to cope with the US and East Asia influence. But I see Russia as a fellow European country and for that reason I don't support anything that would build walls between Russia and the rest of Europe.

But Belarus is not a candidate country or even a "potential candidate country" at the moment, becuase it has not even expressed any interest.