[News Spot] Russia Rebel Prigozhin Exiles to 'Belarus'

'Belarus' is a country located in the intermediate zone between Poland and Russia in Eastern Europe, sharing borders with Poland (west), Ukraine (south), Russia (northeast), Lithuania (northwest), and Latvia (north).

In official national documents, it is written as 'Belorussiya (Белоруссия)'. The capital is Minsk, with a land area of 207,600 km², similar in size to the Korean Peninsula, and a population of 9.49 million. Belarusian and Russian are the official languages, and 92% of the population are ethnic Belarusians (83.7%) and Russians (8.3%). Being landlocked, the climate is cold and humid, and the soil is poor, making agriculture unsuitable.

Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus.
[Photo by Minsk AP/BelTA/Yonhap News]

Known in Korea as 'Baekreosia', the country established diplomatic relations in 1992. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ranks 71st in the world at 68.2 billion USD (South Korea: 1.8102 trillion USD, 10th place, based on 2021 World Bank data).

Belarus maintains a very close relationship with Russia, having signed the 'Union State Formation Treaty' in 1999 and agreed on 28 roadmaps for the creation of the 'Union State' on September 10, 2021. However, unlike Russia, which desires an actual merger, President Alexander Lukashenko, elected since 1994 for six terms, has demanded a federal system, causing slow progress. Controversy arose when a document revealing Russia's plan to annex Belarus by 2030 was made public.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group leader who led an armed rebellion in Russia, arrived in Belarus, his place of asylum, on the 27th (local time). The Wagner Group, led by Prigozhin, advanced northward from the Ukrainian front to a point about 200 km south of Moscow on the 24th, then returned to their base. Prigozhin claimed that the military uprising was not aimed at regime change but to punish the incompetent military leadership, and announced the suspension of the rebellion to avoid bloodshed following Belarus's mediation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.