LUKASHENKA INCHING TOWARD NATIONAL COMMUNISM ?

In a statement inaugurating the Belarus Military Academy, Lukashenka said that the country’s future officers should be trained at home, rather than abroad (evidently meaning Russia) in order to acquire a "profound awareness of their country’s problems and needs." Lukashenka condemned "ultraright nationalists," but noted that "countries base their education systems on the national-cultural heritage"and that he would "support a national-cultural policy in the field of education, while unequivocally rejecting nationalism," Interfax reported September 4. According to the same agency on September 1, Lukashenka told a meeting of agricultural officials that Belarus will build "market socialism" rather than reform, and "will not mechanically follow in anybody’s footsteps because it has its own history, traditions, and vision of the future." The remarks illustrate a nationalist strain emerging alongside the l servility toward Russia which characterized Lukashenka’s earlier pronouncements. Such statements are increasingly reminiscent of the old East European national communism, which often invoked "national" development models in resisting pressures to reform.

Russian Land Force in Crimea Being Disbanded.