[dfwgator]

I would actually like to visit Minsk and see it for myself.

[NorseViking]

Minsk is boring. Interesting places are Grodno and Brest with its gamous fortress, Belovejskaya Puscha, some old castles and monasteries. It is a rather small country, you can travel it all around and see everything in two weeks by car.

[Verginius Rufus]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that when Lee Harvey Oswald lived in Russia and met the woman who became his wife, she had trouble placing his accent, and guessed that he was from Minsk.

When the UN was created, Stalin got three seats--for the USSR, for the White Russian SSR, and for the Ukrainian SSR. In other words, Belarus is an original member of the United Nations. If they allowed themselves to be absorbed by Russia, would they still have a separate membership in the UN?