You can't say that they are the same! It's like you've said that Croatians and Serbians are the same nation! I haven't heard such a bull**** for a long time
No, it's like you said Serbs and Montenegrians are the same nation. They are allmost the same, but they want to be separated. I mean, both countries are Ortodox, so that can't be as different as Serbs and Croatians who are Ortodox and Catolics.
In ancient russian meant "bela" west, western. So it was the "belaja rus' " the "west rus" (I hope you know what rus is). And then after the time it got Belarus'
Today means "bela, belaja" in slavic languages just white
And in Germany is Belarus called "Weißrussland" that's why I was arguing with my friends andwe made a bet, my techer heard that and the next day I had to tell that :P