Can anyone explain why they implemented this law for those of us with little-no knowledge of Belorussian politics?
It is not as closed as North Korea, but it also isn't exactly the kinda place where you would go vacationing.
There has been no indication of an Arab Spring situation, but there have been a few widely reported protests (and oppression of the people involved) they may just be widely reported because they were done by women with no tops.
As for why they do this? Because if you are a dictator and want to stay that way, you avoid and control everything that can challenge your power.
I don't know if this qualify as a consolation, but Hungary is making huge strides on the way to dictatorship too.
Even while it's a small country with no mineral resources, bad climate and no love from the West.
This is going to change, tho, because it was hit hard by the recession and clumsily moving central bank; money inflated 3x in the last year.
I assume you mean among countries that was part of USSR? Not exactly:
Estonia 18,527 Lithuania 17,235 Russia 15,612 Latvia 14,504 Belarus 13,874
Not to mention countries that have been soviet sattelites like Hungary (18,841), Poland (18,981), or Czech Republic (24,950).
To be fair Belarus could still do much worse - for example like Ukraine (6,698).
Data from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_...
Russia has much bigger GINI which offsets the difference.
Officially they say they use it to prevent illegal activity. But in reality government just want to know who doing what in internet.
ps: in this sense it quite similar to all recent USA bills and "this is to protect our children" moto :))
>As stated in an explanatory note published together with the Law, this act was issued to implement the Decree of the Belarusian President of February 1, 2010, on Improvements to the Usage of the National Segment of the Internet.
This appears to mean that the official justification for the law is to promote national providers of internet services. The most cogent consequence is that it becomes practicable to control the internet speech of most Belorussians.
Belarus, the land of no applause (http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/belarus-land-no-a...)