About Belarus
The Republic of Belarus is situated in the heart of Europe at the crossing of roads from West to East and from North to South. Its territory is traversed by the shortest communications linking the CIS member-states with West European countries. Belarus is a landlocked country in the region traditionally called Eastern Europe, bordering Russia to the east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk and other major cities include Brest, Grodno, Gomel, Mogilev and Vitebsk.
The territory of Belarus is 207 thousand square km, population 10.2 million people of which 70% are urban. About one fifth of the population is living in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Administratively, Belarus is divided into six regions. Official languages are Belarusian and Russian. Among the most popular languages of business contacts are Russian, English, and German.
Nature
There are more than 20000 rivers and more than 10000 lakes in Belarus. The biggest lake is Naroch (79,6 sq. km.). Forests take one third of the territory; swamps take 13% of the territory of the Republic and are of significant climatic and hydrologic importance. National parks, reserves, monuments of nature are created in Belarus to preserve and increase the number of rare and disappearing species of flora and fauna, to organize the monitoring of the nature changes. The territory to preserve is about 7% of the whole territory of the Republic.
The biggest parks are: National parks “Belovezhskaya poushcha”, “Braslavskiye Oziora”, “Pripiatsky”, “Narochansky”; Berezina biosphere and Polesye radiation-ecological reserve and others. The last years ecological tourism develops successfully here. Hunting is organized in experimental hunting forestries attached to reserves and National parks.
Climate
The climate of Belarus is temperate-continental with mild and damp winter and warm summer. The warmest period is May-September, the average monthly temperature in this period is about +13—+19 ?C. The warmest month is July, the coldest one is January.
The average temperature in Minsk
January—-6; February—-3; March—+1; April—+8; May—+13; June—+17; July—+18; August—+17; September—+14; October—+7; November—+1; December—-1
Clothes
In summer it is recommended to wear light clothes made of natural cloth. In autumn it is recommended to wear jackets, cloaks, umbrellas are also necessary. In winter when it’s freezing and snowing we wear fur coats, sheepskin coats and warm shoes.
Money
National currency is Belarusian rouble. We have only paper bonds of the value of 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 5000, 10000, 20000 and 50000 roubles.
Time
EET (UTC+2) {GMT +2}
Summer (DST)
EEST (UTC+3)
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