For a while it looked like the West had the upper hand. Belarus’ Aleksandr Lukashenko,
Europe’s last dictator, seemed to be moving away from Russia and closer to the West.
A succession of European ministers went to see him and returned to develop packages of support and assistance with his country. In that new “Great Game” played out on Europe’s periphery it looked like Vladimir Putin’s winning streak was finally coming to en end, after partial success in Georgia and outright victory in Ukraine. Or so European leaders hoped.
But any hope of changing Belarus’ position has now been dashed with the violent crackdown in Minsk against pro-democracy activists following December’s presidential elections. Last week, Belarus declared the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which had described the presidential vote as “flawed”, as organizata non grata and expelled the watchdog.
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