Flexible Stagnation: How Lukashenka Has Held On To Power For 25 Years In Belarus

[Rogue Valley]

Flexible Stagnation: How Lukashenka Has Held On To Power For 25 Years In Belarus

7/20/19
In 1994, the last Russian troops left Germany and the Baltic states, bringing a symbolic end to the Cold War. The same year saw the Rwandan genocide, and American entrepreneur Jeff Bezos launched an online bookseller called Amazon. And a 49-year-old former collective farm director with a deep, nasal voice and a knack for populist pronouncements won the first -- and so far only -- democratic presidential election in Belarus. Alyaksandr Lukashenka was sworn in on July 20, 1994, beginning the first of five presidential terms -- and counting. Europe and the world have undergone startling transformations over the last quarter-century but the presence of Lukashenka has been a constant. Or has it? The wily leader of this resource-poor nation of 10 million bordering Russia, Ukraine, and three European Union and NATO countries has proven endlessly flexible in his constancy, turning his country into a textbook example of adaptive authoritarianism.

Good article on how Alexander Lukashenka (Lukashenko in Ukrainian) has remained in power since slightly after the independence of Belarus in 1991.