Claim: Alexander Lukashenko is the president of Belarus.

Belarus -LRB- -LSB- bɛləˈruːs -RSB- Беларусь , Belaruś or Bełaruś , -LSB- bʲɛlaˈrusʲ -RSB- ; -LSB- Беларусь , Belarusʹ , bʲɪlɐˈrusʲ -RSB- -RRB- , officially the Republic of Belarus , formerly known by its Russian name Byelorussia or Belorussia , is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast , Ukraine to the south , Poland to the west , and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest . Its capital and most populous city is Minsk . Over 40 % of its 207600 km2 is forested . Its strongest economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing . Until the 20th century , different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus , including the Principality of Polotsk -LRB- 11th to 14th centuries -RRB- , the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the Polish -- Lithuanian Commonwealth , and the Russian Empire .   In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution , Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian People 's Republic , which was conquered by Soviet Russia . The Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922 and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic -LRB- Byelorussian SSR -RRB- . Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish -- Soviet War of 1919 -- 1921 . Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939 , when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were reintegrated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland , and were finalized after World War II . During WWII , military operations devastated Belarus , which lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources . The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years . In 1945 the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations , along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR .   The parliament of the republic declared the sovereignty of Belarus on 1990 , and during the dissolution of the Soviet Union , Belarus declared independence on 1991 . Alexander Lukashenko has served as the country 's president since 1994 . Belarus has been labeled `` Europe 's last dictatorship '' by some Western journalists , on account of Lukashenko 's self-described authoritarian style of government . Lukashenko continued a number of Soviet-era policies , such as state ownership of large sections of the economy . Elections under Lukashenko 's rule have been widely criticized as unfair by the international community ; and according to many countries and organizations , political opposition has been violently suppressed . Belarus 's Democracy Index rating was the lowest in Europe until 2014 -LRB- when it was passed by Russia -RRB- , the country is labelled as `` not free '' by Freedom House , as `` repressed '' in the Index of Economic Freedom , and is rated as by far the worst country for press freedom in Europe in the 2013 -- 14 Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders , which ranks Belarus 157th out of 180 nations .   In 2000 Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation , with some hints of forming a Union State . Over 70 % of Belarus 's population of 9.49 million resides in urban areas . More than 80 % of the population is ethnic Belarusian , with sizable minorities of Russians , Poles and Ukrainians . Since a referendum in 1995 , the country has had two official languages : Belarusian and Russian . The Constitution of Belarus does not declare any official religion , although the primary religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity . The second most widespread religion , Roman Catholicism , has a much smaller following ; nevertheless , Belarus celebrates both Orthodox and Catholic versions of Christmas and Easter as national holidays . Belarus is the only European country to retain capital punishment in both law and practice .