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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Teddy bears and the Tyrant of Belarus |
| 2012-08-10 |
| If it were not for the misery inflicted on its 9.5 million people, Belarus would be worth preserving as a living museum of communism's failures. It became independent following the breakup of the Soviet empire and has been ruled since 1994 by a former Soviet apparatchik, Alexander Lukashenko, who is described as "Europe's last dictator." Under Lukashenko, Belarus has revived all the worst aspects of communist rule. On this last point, Western Europe has been especially critical of the Lukashenko regime and that has provoked a nasty diplomatic spat with, of all places, Sweden, a country of studied good manners and neutrality. The Swedish ambassador had the temerity to meet with opposition leaders and donate to a university books that contained materials about human rights. Lukashenko has expelled the Swedish ambassador and his staff and ordered the embassy in Minsk closed by the end of the month. Lukashenko was outraged when Swedish activists in a small plane flew over the country dropping teddy bears containing human-rights messages. In a diplomatic tit-for-tat, Sweden refused to allow Belarus' new ambassador into the country to take up his post. It also expelled two Belarusian diplomats. Throughout European history, Belarus has had the unfortunate geographical drawback of being a good place to fight a war or to pass through on the way to wage war somewhere else. Even for the last dictator, it's progress that a European conflict is being fought by playing musical ambassadors and showering the populace with teddy bears. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #2 Western Europe where you can go to jail for reading from the Koran has been especially critical |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2012-08-10 05:27 |
| #1 The small black hole of Europe. And Russia likes "Buffer states" More like that of pipelines if you ask me but it sux. |
| Posted by: newc 2012-08-10 01:20 |