proper noun

• A country in eastern Europe; population 9,500,000 (estimated 2015); official language, Belarusian; capital, Minsk.

  Formerly called Belorussia, White Russia

Successively part of the grand duchy of Lithuania, Poland, and the Russian empire, the country became a republic of the Soviet Union in 1921. Belarus gained independence as a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1991 but in 1996 signed a treaty with Russia that established a Community of Sovereign Republics