Well, let's see; Iraq and Afghanistan have been subdued. Syria is a good candidate, but the political risks are too high. What we need is a country that we can invade and subdue but no one cares about. Hmm...how about Belarus?? It's a grey, dreary Socialist "paradise", a place where an unimaginative despot rules with an iron fist. Sounds familiar, no? (No, I'm not referring to Shrub.)
Mr. Lukashenko, 48, was elected on an anticorruption platform in 1994. He soon cracked down on dissent and has resisted economic reforms, keeping the economy under firm state control. In 1996 he dissolved parliament and created a loyal legislature after a referendum that boosted his powers and extended his term by two years.
Diplomats say authorities have stepped up efforts to stifle independent media that criticized Mr. Lukashenko during the September 2001 campaign, when he won a new five-year term in a vote that the United States and European Union said was neither free nor fair.
Human rights advocates say nine newspapers were shut down or forced out of business last year. The nation of 10 million is the only former Soviet republic where the security service is still called the KGB. Many citizens won't give their names if they criticize Mr. Lukashenko for fear of being found out and punished.
"His chief ally is fear," said opposition politician Anatoly Lebedko, whose office wall bears portraits of six politicians and other figures who died or disappeared in mysterious circumstances in recent years. The opposition accuses Mr. Lukashenko of involvement in the disappearances.
U.S. Ambassador Michael Kozak compares Belarus unfavorably with surrounding former Soviet-bloc countries that have pursued democracy and market economies.
Belarus "is kind of the black hole in the doughnut, where everybody else moved forward and they moved backward," Mr. Kozak said. "It's a highly unsustainable situation to be that far out of step with all your neighbors."
Still, Mr. Lukashenko retains support, particularly among the elderly, by playing on a deep desire for law and order, and nostalgia for the Soviet era.
Yep. Power corrupts, but absolute power is, well, kind of fun, really. Besides, when you've managed to stifle dissent, enforce a lockstep sense of order, and turn a drab, dreary, unproductive corner of the former USSR into a drab, dreary, unproductive independent country, what are you going to do for an encore?
