Belarus

foxybrowne

Anyone know anything about the current political situation in Belarus? Apperently, its Europe's "last dictatorship".

Cronus333

All I know is that President Alexander Lushchenko (I can't spell) is the sole power and he is also in the Russian Parliament, I think he is trying to do with Belarus what Stalin did to Georgia -Join it with Russia and succeed to leader of Russia.

President4Life

Cronus333 wrote:

All I know is that President Alexander Lushchenko (I can't spell) is the sole power and he is also in the Russian Parliament, I think he is trying to do with Belarus what Stalin did to Georgia -Join it with Russia and succeed to leader of Russia.

Alexander Lukashenko.

He is not in the Russian parliament. He is however seeking to unite Belarus with Russia in some respect. It is not entirely clear what respect this is however. A few years ago he was talking about uniting with Russia but it seems he went colder on the idea when it emerged he would not be allowed to head the new union.

Although he is an ethnic Belarussian, he has been very hostile towards the Belarussian language. His predecessor pre-1994 (when Lukashenko was elected) pursued a policy of trying to promote the language but Lukashenko has stopped this and is in fact persecuting the language by closing down Belarussian-language schools. After years of Russification policies under the Tsars and the Soviets, only around 900,000 Belarussians still speak the language as a first language out of a population of 10 million. Having said that, it seems Belarussians have a rather weak sense of national-identity compared to Ukraine. This may have a lot to do with the fact that there is little history of a Belarus separate from Russia, unlike Ukraine which was once controlled by Lithuania and then Poland. Lukashenko appears to regard Belarussians as simply Russians.

He rigged a referendum to prolong his rule.

baileyjackson

Def still holds onto their communistic past!
Not used to foreigners being there, got alot of stares and jeers there, as they presume we are from the US.
As for lukashenko!! He's done wonders for the country but its still all a bit backwards/!

cailinoBAC

http://www.charter97.org/en/news/

Lukoshenko has a lot of support in the country but I never met anyone in Minsk who supported him.

pablomakaveli

He's also stopped Cherynobyl children from visiting ireland with Adi roches charity. I think irish and european politicians having being trying to get him to allow the children to visit.

As for being a dictator, he definitely fits the bill. He seems to have some Stalinesque qualities.

lostexpectation

he asked adi to sign something promising not to kiddnapp them, pretty reasonable.

lostexpectation

i say good luck to the independent people there who say neither king(bush) nor kaiser(luk/putin)

wasper

Cronus333 wrote: »

I think he is trying to do with Belarus what Stalin did to Georgia -Join it with Russia and succeed to leader of Russia.

Goergia was part of the Tzarist Russia, I don't know where is your source.

pablomakaveli

wasper wrote: »

Goergia was part of the Tzarist Russia, I don't know where is your source.

Georgia declared independence during the revolution but was absorbed back into the Soviet Union after a couple of years.