Russia and Its Neighbors - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 231

tired of subsidizing its sister republic, and has raised the price to closer to
the market level. Furthermore, it criticizes the Ukrainians for wasting the
gas due to inefficient burning. The crisis came to a head in January 2009
when Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine. Understandably, the Ukrainians
reduced the amount passed through to the Europeans, who suffered the
severe shortage in the middle of winter, causing factories to shut and
people to be without heat. Under pressure from the European Union and
Russia, Ukraine reluctantly agreed to abide by their contracts for delivery
and to pay more (though still a subsidized price).
As a successor to the USSR, Ukraine along with Russia and the other
republics became parties to international treaties with the defunct union.
These included ones on air, endangered species, hazardous wastes, and
ozone layer protection. Some were considered to be transferred directly
and others were renegotiated. Those affecting nuclear weapons were by far
the most important.
Ukraine renegotiated the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. At the time of the breakup, many Soviet
missiles were located there, so it briefly possessed the third largest nuclear
arsenal in the world. The country decided to renounce these arms and
turned them over to Russia for destruction in return for badly needed fuel
for its nuclear electric plants. As a successor state, Ukraine continues to
be a party to a variety of environmental and other treaties. These include
the Framework Convention on Climate Change as well as those on air
pollution control, the Antarctic, biodiversity, endangered species, hazard-
ous wastes, Law of the Sea, the ozone layer, and wetlands.
Belarus is the fifth largest of the successor republics, and with 10 million
people, its population is about the size of Greece or Belgium. Its economy
is battered, with a GDP of only $131 billion a year according to purchas-
ing power parity. Per capita income is $13,600. Like Russia and Ukraine,
its economy declined after the breakup of the Soviet Union, but in 1996
it re-imposed old-style government controls and took back ownership of
some industries it had privatized. President Alexander Lukashenko, has
maintained dictatorial control since 1994. The economy is heavily industri-
alized, and pollution is extreme. Unlike the other former Soviet republics,
Belarus has done little to reform its old-fashioned state-owned industries.
The southern part of the country is contaminated with fallout from the
Chernobyl accident because its location was only ten miles from the border.
Like all of the former USSR, Belarus suffers from water and air pollution.
Its soil contains excessive pesticides. The country continued many of the