At the heart of the feud is the status of what is quietly
referred to here as the “oil for kisses” deal, in which Russia supplies
Belarus with subsidized oil and gas in exchange for Minsk’s loyalty.
When Russia in 2015 refused to lower its gas prices to reflect a decrease in global oil prices, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko began exploring closer relations with the West.
Lukashenko
has refused so far to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Last
year, he said no to a Kremlin proposal to build a Russian air base in
eastern Belarus.
Lukashenko, who has ruled this former
Soviet republic with an authoritarian grip for 22 years, bowed to
Western pressure in 2015 to release six prominent political prisoners,
and ushered in a period of “softening” against political dissent and
public gatherings. This earned him cautious praise from Western
governments, which subsequently lifted sanctions on Belarus.[...]
In recent weeks, public protests have sprung up in Minsk and a few
regional cities against an unpopular law instituting a yearly flat tax
on the unemployed. So far, the protests have been small, and authorities
have not cracked down on demonstrators, a rarity in Lukashenko’s
tightly controlled Belarus.
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