ABSTRACT
Belarus enjoyed the highest per capita income of any Soviet republic in 1990, followed by Latvia and Russia. Belarus is the only state which has passed from the disintegrating authoritarianism of Mikhail Gorbachev to the beginnings of democracy and then back to authoritarianism. The Belarusian economy made quite a promising start to the 1990s but the advent of Lukashenka reversed the trend towards liberalisation and reintroduced a modified version of the command economy. The Russian financial crisis of August 1998 hit Moldova hard and increased the economic gloom which envelops the republic. Central Asia is bounded on the west and south east by mountains which are inhospitable and by deserts in the centre and west. The big horde is in the south and east, centred on the former capital of Almaty, the middle horde contains the new capital Astana and the small horde occupies the north west and west.
