As European governments threatened Belarus with deeper sanctions last week for fomenting the migration crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border, its bombastic leader countered with what sounded like a trump card: He could stop the flow of gas to the West.
There was just one problem: It wasn’t his gas to stop.
So Friday, Russia — which sends much of its gas to Europe via Belarus — had to set the record straight for the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko.