Belarus’s Struggle to Escape Its Soviet Past Pushes It Into Russia’s Embrace

The extended rule of Alexander Lukashenko, the embattled president of Belarus, has left his state economically depleted and reliant on Russia, largely trapped in its Soviet-era earlier and very likely sure to Moscow for quite a few yrs to occur.

Mr. Lukashenko, Belarus’s president for 26 yrs and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has presided around a major-down political and economic system that he tightly controls, with a lot of the financial system nonetheless in the arms of the point out.