Once, he kept Russia at a distance. Now, he is a docile Putin satrap.
Alexander Lukashenko played East and West against each other for 28 years, all while keeping Belarus firmly in his grip, but those days are over.
As Russian troops mass in Belarus, a Ukraine border is largely undefended
Russia has deployed tanks and artillery, fighter jets and helicopters, advanced rocket systems and troops by the thousands all across Belarus.
U.S. orders families of diplomats out of Ukraine citing war risk
The action, as well as possible plans to deploy troops, reflects the U.S. position that Russian President Vladimir Putin could launch an invasion at any time, State Department officials said
In an ‘age of unpeace,’ civilians become new pawns of war
While migration has become a political football in Western Europe, it has been fully weaponized in an obscure strip of land between Belarus and Poland.
Confronting the Kremlin’s new hybrid war in Europe
Russia's recent aggressive moves have multiple objectives. But the Kremlin’s greatest desire is to divide and weaken the European Union.
Fixing Europe’s migrant predicament requires a new approach
The causes behind the sudden and ugly new migrant tableau are blurred, but one theory is the Belarus government may be inviting immigrants in and then urging them to enter Poland and the EU.
How fake news on Facebook helped fuel a border crisis in Europe
Social media worsened a migrant crisis and helped smugglers profit off desperate people trying to reach Europe.
Putin pushes confrontation with NATO as hard-liners prevail
The Russian president may not want to start a war, but he must show he’s ready to fight to stop what he sees as an existential security threat.
Migrants have reported being forced to cross the border by Belarusian officials, then pushed back into Belarus by Polish authorities.
On Putin’s strategic chessboard, a series of destabilizing moves
In the stretch of Europe from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, where Moscow and the West have competed for influence for decades, the threat of a new military conflict is growing.
The Polish border force confirmed the evacuation of the camp, which had been set up in a wooded area not far from the border post of Brouzgui.
Migrant crisis in Belarus tests Putin’s uneasy alliance with Lukashenko
With thousands of migrants stranded in the frigid cold on the edge of the European Union, the complex relationship between two allied autocrats looms large over the crisis.
