"The Prague racket"
(Subtitle: "Nato is now a device to exert control and extract cash. Those who resist, like Belarus, are punished")
John Laughland Friday November 22, 2002 The Guardian
"The reasons given for the west's hostility towards Belarus are that Lukashenko is authoritarian and a "dictator". This is an odd charge, given that the losing candidates in last September's presidential elections conceded that the incumbent president had won more votes than them. It is also strange for the west to revile Lukashenko when it courts so assiduously President Putin, whose own election, like all those in Russia since 1991, was outrageously rigged. Most of the charges levelled against Belarus are absurd. It is often claimed that people are beaten for speaking Belarusian; in fact it is the official state language and Lukashenko himself speaks it frequently. It is also alleged that Catholics and Jews are persecuted there. But the Catholic hierarchy was restored under Lukashenko and the Oxford Institute for Hebrew and Jewish Studies has just confirmed that the Jewish community in Belarus is flourishing. It is also stated repeatedly, without evidence, that Lukashenko has had his political opponents murdered: these claims persist in spite of the fact that one of his alleged victims was discovered alive and well and living in London. The real reason why the west hates Lukashenko has nothing to do with concern for democracy or human rights. It is instead that, as a genuinely popular politician who has preserved his country from the worst ravages which economic reform has inflicted on its neighbours, Lukashenko is not given to taking orders.
[The rest is at]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4552159,00.html