Word: lukashenko
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...been a while since Russia pulled out the "sanitary regulations" card to ban imports over a spat with one of its neighbors. But on June 6, after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko publicly voiced his fury at Russia's raising of energy prices, Russia imposed a ban on dairy products from Belarus, sparking a so-called milk war that has seen tensions between the former allies escalate daily...
...Over the past year, Lukashenko has been increasingly turning his back on Russia, slowly allying his country with the West. So far, the move seems to be paying off. Belarus was included in the E.U.'s Eastern Partnership initiative, created last year to strengthen economic and political ties between Europe and six former Soviet states. Lukashenko's travel ban to Europe - issued after his 2006 re-election, which the U.S. and the E.U. maintain was rigged - has been lifted. And Belarus secured an additional $1 billion on a $2.4 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after Russia canceled...
...Lukashenko's refusal to attend a key security summit in Moscow on Monday because of the dairy ban has infuriated the Kremlin, and despite Belarus' achievements with the E.U., the price for angering Russian President Dmitri Medvedev may just be too high. "Exporting food to Russia has been one of [Belarus'] most important and reliable trade sectors," Andrew Wilson, a senior policy fellow at the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations, tells TIME. "The ban will definitely sting." In 2008, Russia bought 93% of Belarus' meat and dairy products, earning Belarus $1 billion...
...gives her name only as Tanya, "it is that people do not believe that if they hand over some money, no matter how small, and no matter how positive the cause, that something will actually come of it." After seven decades of Soviet life and 13 years of Lukashenko, mistrust runs deep...
...does not relish provoking their anger. By all accounts he prefers a go-along, get-along style of management. One of the attendees at the road improvement meeting said she wished that sometimes the Chairman would show a stonger hand, but she knows that that, too, is unlikely. Like Lukashenko, he is a holdover from the Soviet era, and no plans are in place to explore his replacement. He will, in all likelihood, remain chairman for life. And the grass in the pond will remain free of the attention of hungry carp...