Word: belarus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Belarus is in many ways a post-Soviet nation in name only. Its state security service is still called the KGB and the iron-fisted rule of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has led the U.S. State Department to dub the country "Europe's last dictatorship." U.S.-based nongovernmental organization Freedom House included the country in its "Worst of the Worst 2009" report released earlier this month, naming Belarus one of the 21 most repressive places in the world...
...Which makes the European Union's March 20 decision to include Belarus in its "Eastern Partnership" initiative all the more surprising. The program foresees deeper political and economic ties between Brussels and six former Soviet states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Closer ties, Europe hopes, will promote democracy and better human rights. (See pictures of the 2006 riots in Minsk...
...seems to have decided that shunning Belarus has not worked. "Isolation is perceived to have failed as there has been little change in the political structure of the country or moves toward democratization," says David Marples, a Belarus expert at the University of Alberta in Canada. With Russia badly hit by the sharp drop in the price of gas and oil, it's also a good opportunity to increase Europe's influence in the region...
Since the Georgia-Russia war last August, Brussels has been keen to draw Belarus away from Moscow and closer into its camp. The first step last October was the suspension of an E.U. visa ban against Belarus' authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and other top officials. That relaxation of the travel restrictions, which were first instituted in 2006 after a rigged presidential election and violent crackdown on protestors, was renewed last week. In another sign of mending relations, the E.U.'s foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Minsk on Feb. 19 for meetings with top Belarusian officials. E.U. leaders...
...looking to expand his options beyond traditional ally Russia, he is also trying to get as much as he can from both sides. "Lukashenka is feeling pressure from Russia both economically and politically," says Marples, "He is very much sucked into the Russian orbit and seeks some release." Belarus has in the last six months received a $2 billion loan from Russia, and is under pressure to recognize the Russian-backed breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia. E.U. politicians have warned against such a move...