Word: lukashenko
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Dates: during 1994-1994
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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...
...Lukashenko's 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...
...Lukashenko, with a Reaganesque promise of "simple answers to complicated questions," asked Belarussians whether they could possibly imagine being worse off than they are today. When crowds answered him with the inevitable no, the flamboyant populist declared, "Without Russia's help, we don't have a way out of the current crisis. Ruptured economic relations between the former Soviet republics must be restored...
Alexander Lukashenko, sometimes called "the Belarus Zhirinovsky" for his vague promises of an easy fix for his economically devastated former Soviet republic, was elected Belarus' first President. The onetime state-farm director won 80% of the vote, campaigning on a platform of anticorruption and stronger economic and political ties with Russia...