![](/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/region-europe.jpg)
Latest Articles about Belarus
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/putin-lukashenko-background-640x363.jpg)
Is Belarus Still Able to Pursue Its Own Interests?
The authorities’ crackdown on the massive 2020 post-election protests resulted in a cardinal change to Belarus’s international relations and its regional security nexus. From aspiring to be a middle ground between Russia and the European Union and even a would-be Switzerland (see EDM, November 18,... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/lukashenka-whimper.jpeg)
Belarusian Foreign Policy in Circumstances Beyond Minsk’s Control
The predominant feature of Belarus’s current situation vis-à-vis its neighbors is uncertainty. Will Belarus eventually participate in Russia’s military operation in Ukraine? Will Belarus retain its statehood or fall victim to Russia’s expansionism? No definitive responses to these questions exist, possibly even in the minds... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Lukashenka-putin-csto-640x407.jpg)
The Ailing Belarusian Economy and Lukashenka’s Plea on Big Brother’s Behalf
According to a January 2022 forecast published by the World Bank, the Belarusian economy would contract by 2.8 percent over the course of the year. But in April, the international financial institution sharply revised down its estimate to a drop of 6.5 percent. The April... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Lukashenka-chair-forward.jpg)
Belarusian President Speaks to the West
While the Belarusian opposition insists that President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is unworthy of attention because he no longer has anything to offer to the collective West (YouTube, May 2), opposition leader and 2020 presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is seen navigating the corridors of power in Europe... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Lukashenka-the-call-is-coming-from-inside-the-country-640x362.jpg)
Belarus and the War: A Survey and a Morality Debate
In Warsaw, on April 26, the head of the non-governmental organization Belarusian Analytical Workroom, Andrei Vardomatsky, described the outcome of his group’s telephone poll of 1,000 Belarusians conducted in mid-March. Of those surveyed, just 24 percent pinned responsibility for sparking the war in Ukraine on... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Vladimir-Makei-640x426.jpg)
Leaked Makei Letter Suggests Belarusian Efforts to Reach out to the West
As Russia continues to try to subjugate Ukraine in an unprovoked war of aggression, Belarus has endeavored to keep its options open (see EDM, April 18). Further evidence of this policy from Minsk came out on April 14, when Rikard Jozwiak, a Prague-based journalist of... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Aktau-Port-Kazakhstan-640x598.jpeg)
Middle Corridor: Potential Alternative to Russian Railways?
The Russo-Ukrainian war has cast doubt on the sustainability of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative’s (BRI) “Northern Corridor” because of mounting Western sanctions on this overland route’s key links—Russia and Belarus (see EDM, April 8, 18). The growing vulnerability of the Northern Corridor, which... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-12-at-09.14.48-copy-990x579-1-640x374.jpg)
In Russia’s Camp but Keeping Its Options Open: Belarus’s Maneuvering During the War
In a store at one of Minsk’s shopping malls that sells Russian-made t-shirts decorated with a “Z,” the symbol of the Russian military offensive against Ukraine, the shop owner admitted to a journalist that she wholeheartedly backed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin but “we support the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/210809-alexander-lukashenko-ew-1237p-640x427.jpg)
‘Accomplice’ No More? How the War in Ukraine Stokes Anxieties in Belarus
Both directly and indirectly, Russia’s ongoing “special military operation” in Ukraine (launched by the Kremlin on February 24) triggers anxieties across the border in Belarus. Thus, on March 30, the authorities apprehended a group of perpetrators of the so-called rail-track war (see EDM, April 6),... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Lukashenka-whispering-sweet-nothings-to-putin-640x359.jpg)
Divining Belarus’s Future Amidst International and Domestic Unrest
How long will Belarus remain a pariah in the eyes of its neighbors? According to Yury Drakakhrust of Radio Liberty, this depends on whether the Belarusian army enters the Russo-Ukrainian war and, above all, on that conflict’s outcome. If Russia emerges weakened from this war,... MORE