I'll answer the first question on the situation in Belarus. Belarus, at the end of the 1980s, was more prosperous than Poland, the Czech Republic, or Slovakia, because it was in the west of the Soviet Union, and the leadership wanted Belarus to look like the west, It was like eastern Germany and the western part of Germany. The contrast was huge, but the information monopoly created the illusion that we were very prosperous.
In 1994 the average salary was about $30. Those were very bad, rough times. That was the bottom. Then the economy began to grow. Lukashenko was in power. It was a coincidence, but many people attributed this kind of growth to Lukashenko policies.
Anatoly.