Sunday, 20 July, marked the twentieth anniversary of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s presidency of Belarus – a European record for longevity in leadership with which, until last year, only Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker could compete.
So what has life been like under the man usually described as ‘Europe’s last dictator’? “Belarusians have never lived better in their history than they do now,” says Dzianis Melyantsou of the independent Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS), a sad conclusion borne out by years of opinion polls. Such findings highlight the paradox of Lukashenka’s rule: he may be authoritarian, but he is successful and has a genuine …read more
Source: European Voice
