The Economist: Europe’s last dictator
A man dressed as a pumpkin take a selfie next to a poster bearing the image of Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko as his supporters collect signatures to register him as a candidate for the Oct. 11 presidential elections, in Minsk on Sept. 19.
The crisis in Ukraine has been painful for nearly everyone involved. Russia finds itself under sanctions and at loggerheads abroad. NATO faces as grave a challenge as any since the cold war ended. And Ukraine itself, dismembered and drained by war, struggles to recover even as the fighting in the east of the country grinds to a halt. Yet one clear winner has emerged from the mess: Alexander Lukashenko, the mustachioed strongman of Belarus, to Ukraine's north.
