Word: lukashenko
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...SENTENCED. Alexander Milinkevich, 58, Belarussian opposition leader, to 15 days in jail after being found guilty of attending an illegal demonstration; in Minsk. Milinkevich finished a distant second to President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus' disputed presidential elections in March, which triggered massive protests in the former Soviet republic. Milinkevich was arrested after leading a demonstration of about 6,000 on April 26 that called for the constitutional overthrow of the Russian-backed Lukashenko...
...Belarus's President Alexander Lukashenko continues his brutal crackdown against protesters opposed to his internationally condemned fraudulent election victory, Europe's last dictator seems to some observers to be running scared; he only showed his face to his countrymen on Tuesday, and has already postponed his previously planned inauguration this coming Friday. But if Lukashenko is indeed feeling increasingly painted into a corner, perhaps he can take comfort from recent elections in nearby Ukraine, where at least one-third of the electorate retain strong support for the same post-Soviet Moscow-favored autocratic leader the voters rejected just 16 months...
...knows - maybe Lukashenko will even one day find himself being voted into power in a legitimate election again, the way he did back in his first race in 1994. After all, a good portion of people will always prefer guaranteed rations and order to the messiness and uncertainty of freedom. That in many respects explains the amazing tenacity and comeback of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who lost the Presidency in December of 2004 to reformer Viktor Yushchenko after the people revolted against a clearly fraudulent initial election in a non-violent surge of people power. In this past...
...also proof of how messy democracy can be. In Belarus, just several days before President Alexander Lukashenko ordered his storm troopers to meet the flowers and colored balloons of a peaceful people's march with clubs, tear gas and stun grenades, I happened to overhear a Western observer. The gentleman, apparently Italian, was admiring the impeccable organization of Lukashenko's election: all so orderly, just like in Switzerland, he enthused. Well, yes, order is admirable - didn't the trains run on time under Mussolini, which doesn't always happen in Italy under democracy? That's the eternal problem: democracy...
...Liberty Day, commemorating the short-lived independent People's Republic of Belarus, proclaimed in 1918, but crushed by Russia's Bolsheviks six months later. This year, the anniversary was marked by a protest rally against the poll held six days earlier, in which - according to official figures - President Alexander Lukashenko, first elected in 1994, won 82.6% of the votes. Lukashenko's opposition, which considers the election results fraudulent and had been holding peaceful protests all week, had planned to hold the March 25 rally in Oktyabrskaya Square, in the center of the capital city, Minsk. The square had been...