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Belarus GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Belarus's declaration of independence on August 25,
1991, did
not stem from long-held political aspirations but from
reactions
to domestic and foreign events. Moscow's slow response
both to
the accident at the Chornobyl' power plant and to the
discovery
of mass graves of Stalin's victims at Kurapaty led to
demands for
government accountability and reform. Ukraine's
declaration of
independence, in particular, led the Belorussian SSR to
realize
that the Soviet Union would not last long. Independence
nonetheless brought little or no change in the country's
political structure.
Data as of June 1995
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