Vehicle registration plates of Belarus


Belarusian vehicle registration plates are currently mainly composed of four digits – the vehicle identifier, two letters – the number plate series, and the region code – a final digit indicating the region of Belarus in which the vehicle was registered. The placement of the series letters varies for the weight class or type of the vehicle:

Car registration

The letters used for plate series are confined to those appearing in both the Belarusian Cyrillic and Latin alphabets – A, E, I, O, B, C, H, K, P, T, X.
Following region codes are used:1 - Brest Region 2 - Viciebsk Region 3 - Homieĺ Region4 - Hrodna Region 5 - Minsk Region6 - Mahilioŭ Region7, 8* - Minsk
The codes are assigned by alphabetic order of region names in Russian, with Minsk city outside of this order. It mostly coincides with the same order in Belarusian, except for Mahilioŭ Region preceding Minsk Region in the latter.
Occasionally, the digit 0 is used instead of region code to indicate that the vehicle is property of Ministry of Defense, State Border Committee or Internal Troops of Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Special plates

Diplomatic plates have the represented country or organization stated using the first 2 digits.

History

Soviet-era registration plates for Belarus carried a pair of two-digit numbers followed by letters in Cyrillic. Following independence, in 1992 the format of Belarusian registration plates became red characters — four digits and two letters on a white background — with the national crest (Pahonia) in the centre, separating the digits from the letters. After the controversial change of the symbols of Belarus in 1995, in 1996 it was replaced by a sticker with the inscription "BELARUS" surrounded by the folk motif found on the current official flag of Belarus.
TX used on registered vehicles driven in foreign countries.
SuffixRegion
БНBrest
BTVitebsk
ГКGrodno
ГСGomel
МБMinsk
МГMogilev
МИMinsk

Vehicles owned by foreign companies used black-on-yellow plates, and the numbers and letters appeared in a different order.
Until 2004, the first letter of the plate series was used to indicate the region of the vehicle's registration, with the rest of the letters being taken from the series A, B, C, E, I, K, M, H, P, O, T, X:A BrestB VitebskC GrodnoE GomelHA, HB, HC, HE, HH, HI, HM, HO, HP, HT, HX GomelHK MinskIA, IB, IC, IE, IH, II BrestIK, IM, IO, IT, IX VitebskIP Minsk K, M Minsk O, P Minsk T MogilevXA, XB, XC, XE, XH, XI GrodnoXK Minsk XM, XO, XP, XT, XX Mogilev