Woj, I did not say I approved it. I said it was risible. You have:
1. A president that everybody agrees is the most popular politician in the country. Even his opponents concede this.
2. He decides to rig the elections anyway!
3. Most people in Belarus just don't care. Their guy won. That's why the protests afterward were so pathetic.
Luka is an autocrat. However, most people in Belarus prefer the autocract to the democrats. We all know why. Belarus' economy is doing pretty well. The economies of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other "democratic" countries in the CIS, where many Belarussians have relatives living, are a mess. The average Belarussian pension is like three times the average Russian pension. In the minds of lots of Belarussians, "democratic procedures" = "collapse of my standard of living." It's that simple.
--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
>
>
> By the same logic, you should approve the election
> of Bush jr. in the US -
> he provided a (false) sense of security for the
> conservative segment of the
> population that demanded it, and got the majority of
> the votes. That 40+
> percent that voted for his opponent are portrayed as
> a bunch of urban
> liberals and wannabies by the patriotic Right.
>
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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