Word: belarus
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...presidential candidate, Alexander Lukashenko was not what one would call timid. A dark horse with little experience in domestic or international politics, the former collective-farm boss launched his bid for the presidency of Belarus by pledging that his first official act, if elected, would be to throw the Prime Minister in jail. Then he promised to ban private property, purge the government and squelch free enterprise. Finally, in a televised debate, he named Felix Dzerzhinsky, the ghoulish founder of the Soviet secret police, one of his most admired heroes...
...temerity paid off handsomely. Last week he swept up a smashing 80% of the vote to become the first elected President of this Kansas-size country sandwiched between Poland and Russia. Key to his victory was a program of reform that would have been unthinkable three years ago, when Belarus was sprinting off in the direction of independence. Instead of turning his back on Moscow, as most in the former Soviet Union did in 1991, Lukashenko proposed that salvation lay in closer links with Russia...
...After taking a new look at their Soviet past, some have tempered their defiance and long for the ! economic stability -- though not the Russification and political repression -- of U.S.S.R. days. Perhaps the most dramatic evidence of new thinking about the old union came last week, when voters in both Belarus and Ukraine tossed out those who had led them after independence and replaced them with men who promise deliverance from economic chaos through closer ties with Russia...
...RUSSIAN NATIONALISM: The four republics of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and part of Kazakhstan are linked to us by millions of ties. That makes the artificial division into states very painful. I have always said we should never resort to coercive measures. I cannot predict the future, but I would like to see a single state formed out of those four states...
...OFTEN, THE DEEDS OF DIPLOmacy are cloaked in riddles -- especially when their results are likely to embarrass or anger. Jetting back from his recent trip to the countries of the former Soviet Union, U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry trumpeted the Clinton Administration's continuing success in weaning Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine from nuclear weapons. But when the conversation turned to North Korea, the Secretary spoke with less clarity. "Our policy right along," he said, "has been oriented to try to keep North Korea from getting a significant nuclear-weapon capability...