Word: belarusian
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...decades, in part to ensure its loyalty after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has even been allowed to buy Russian crude oil on the cheap, refine it at home and sell it on to Europe at a huge profit. But in the past three years, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has started to assert his independence in subtle ways. Following the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Lukashenko declined to recognize the breakaway Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, despite pressure from Russia to do so. Lukashenko also joined the E.U.'s Eastern Partnership initiative, created in 2008 to strengthen...
...Then, on Jan. 19, three weeks into the dispute, Kazakhstan stepped in with a game-changing offer. It said that if Russia refuses to provide oil to the Belarusian refineries, it would be happy to take Moscow's place. The Kazakhs also said they would be willing to buy a stake in Belarus' Naftan refinery, which Russia's largest oil companies have coveted. "The demands of Belarusian refineries will be filled by Kazakh oil," said Anatoly Smirnov, Kazakhstan's ambassador to Belarus, adding that the two nations' Presidents have already discussed the idea and "no one has refused...