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Transmission

Lukashenka: Best Friends With Bill Clinton

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November 26, 2008

In a recent speech, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, true to form, called for the abolition of NATO and said European countries are now talking about the success of the Belarusian economic model. Nothing that new there.

But he also expressed hope that his apparent "friendship" with Bill Clinton will mean U.S.-Belarusian ties will normalize if Hillary Clinton becomes secretary of state.

Bill, according to Lukashenka, will tell Hillary that the United States should engage Belarus in dialogue. "I'm counting on Bill," he said.

Lukashenka has that rare gift as an orator that the moment he says something, he sounds like he actually believes it. Perhaps he does.

For example, last year, he declared several times that no one apart from Belarus has any grain, not in Russia, not in Ukraine, not in Europe. Only in Belarus.

Or maybe he really is friends with Bill, I don't know.

-- Alexander Lukashuk

Tags: Lukashenka , belarus , hillary

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by: MissionGirl
November 27, 2008 16:22
While in Belarus a few years back, I was in a college dorm speaking with some students. One of them said something so profound and heartbreaking that it was all I could do to keep from crying on the spot. HEre is what she said: "Growing up, we were told what pigs Americans were, how bad their govt. was, and how their people were naked and starving and how wonderful we had it here in Belarus under communist rule. Then the Berlin Wall fell and the curtain was torn and all that I had been told I found to be a lie. We (meaning the Belarussian people) were the ones who were actually naked and starving and America and it's people live 1000 times better than we do."

Mr. Lukashenka is trying desperately to hang on to pre-Berlin Wall days and reinforce the lies perpetrated upon his own countryman. One of the older people told me while I was there, that it was just a "matter of time" before the communist regime would return. The sad fact is, under Lukashenka it never really left. Belarus, we pray for you...

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Written by RFE/RL editors and correspondents, Transmission serves up news, comment, and the odd silly dictator story. While our primary concern is with foreign policy, Transmission is also a place for the ideas -- some serious, some irreverent -- that bubble up from our bureaus. The name recognizes RFE/RL's role as a surrogate broadcaster to places without free media. You can write us at transmission+rferl.org