It is stronger than him. When they visit a farm, Alexander Lukashenko exposing happy to its agricultural science. In this may 15, when it has just disembarked from his helicopter landed in the field of exploitation of Vitebsk, in the north of Belarus, it is the lesson to the delegation from the host. “Plan well to pick up this season in both the grain and hay “, lance-t-il to officials surprised to hear him state the basis of the business. The small group then travels in a stable. “We separate the cows more than 6 months other,” says one of the managers. “Bravo for this method !” compliments, this time, Lukashenko. “The earth produces the food for the animals. And the meat of animals allows you to get the money, ” says flatly that which was once the director of a sovkhoze, a State farm soviet.
The belarusian president is as well. He has an opinion on everything. Not always relevant. Example ? For several weeks, his “expertise” on the Covid-19 feeds the tv programs. To eradicate it, it calls for a recipe : the vodka, the sauna and the hard work. “Better to die standing than to live on ones knees “, funny-t-it. He censures also the most fragile of its citizens. “How can you live in the weighing 135 pounds ? Your heart is faint ! You have a sick body and the virus, you attack. “Containment, it excludes it. “It must be that the economy turns and people eat. “
electoral Farce
no one dares to contradict. For over a quarter of a century, Lukashenko, 65, reigns supreme on the former soviet republic of 9.5 million people. A country wedged between Poland and Russia and qualified by Washington of the ” last dictatorship in Europe “. Since the withdrawal of his kazakh counterpart, Lukashenka even the most old autocrat of the post-soviet space in the period. And the man with the mustache does not stay there. In August, he aims for a sixth term in office, him who swears, however, ” not wanting to die in his armchair of the president “.
A new electoral farce, which could, however, create a stir. Because, in fact, rather rare, Minsk becomes a theatre of rallies hostile to the regime. “Stop cockroach !” would chant a crowd of several hundred people last weekend, with brandished by the demonstrators, slippers, intended to crush the insect.
Nikolai, the heir ?
Lukashenko, it is true, focus all criticism. Not only because of its longevity and of its grasp. His private life is also pointing the finger. This is the case when he joined his son Nikolai, 16 years, born of an extramarital affair, to all his official trips, such as an heir. Or when it parachute to a position of deputy his girlfriend, 23-year-old, a former beauty queen, coming third in the Miss world contests.
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Then, Lukashenko is wary. As soon as the next day of the protests, he summoned the head of the KGB, the intelligence service of the country (whose name remains unchanged since the fall of the USSR). “I warn all those who listen to us that there will be no here of revolution of Maïdan “, striking the president in reference to the Ukrainian revolution. And to accuse a “criminal gang” of wanting to precipitate the chaos. In face, trimmed with braid, the head low, not pipe word.
tense economic Situation
Lukashenko even takes the lead. These last days, he has sent in prison of two opposition figures : Sergei Tikhanovski, a blogger become very popular thanks to his YouTube channel called Country life, a site on which people recount their tribulations in the face of the authorities ; And Mikola Statkevich, already imprisoned for six years for having attempted to present themselves in 2010 against Lukashenko.
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was safe to do so ? Not quite. Two other candidates could shake up the plans of the strong man. Two personalities, a priori, intended to give the exchange, during the election : Valery Tsepkalo, the creator of Silicon Valley, local, and Viktor Babariko, a former banker. Except that both do not necessarily want to make up the numbers. “They have beliefs, liberal, money and a lot of relays, wrote in its latest report on Artyom Shraibman, an analyst from the Carnegie institute. The belarusian authorities are taking a risk because they can quickly climb in the polls. “
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Still another threat : the economic situation is suffering by the interruption of the exports of the two main sources of income in the country : fertilizers and refined oil. Not to mention the strained relations with Russia, furious to see Lukashenko reject his proposals for integration, and no longer hesitate to cut off its supplies of hydrocarbons.
among the Many challenges on which the former apparatchik will surely notice…
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