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From Belarus to Iran? Sanctions can work

From Belarus to Iran? Sanctions can work

By Demdigest on August 25, 2010

Belarus is vastly different from Iran, but the lessons from the sanctions imposed against Europe’s last dictatorship are worth heeding, David Kramer argues.
Even optimistic estimates claim only a 34 percent success rate for what can appear to be a pretty blunt weapon against unsavory regimes. But sanctions worked against South Africa’s apartheid regime, the Communist [read full story]

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Mikalai Autokovich

By Michael Allen on June 5, 2009

Are there any political prisoners remaining in Belarus? The European Union seems to think that Europe’s last dictatorship is cleaning up its act.
Others beg to differ, citing the case of Mikalai Autokovich.

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Democratizing Belarus

Democratizing Belarus

By Michael Allen on May 29, 2009

Democratizing Europe’s last dictatorship will curb the Kremlin’s aggression in its periphery and encourage democratic forces within Russia, writes Jeffrey Gedmin, president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
As economic crisis threatens to fray the social pact underpinning Alexander Lukashenko’s hard-line regime and economic relations with Russia strained, the democratic West should eschew short-term realpolitik and ramp [read full story]

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EU-Belarus dialog must engage opposition, civil society too

By Michael Allen on November 4, 2008

The upcoming Czech presidency of the European Union may invite Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to an extraordinary EU summit early next year, if his regime initiates democratic reform. On 13 October the EU temporarily lifted a visa ban on Lukashenko and 35 other high-ranking members of the government, up to April 2009, stressing that the [read full story]

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EU to ease sanctions against Belarus?

By DemDigest on October 1, 2008

The European Union is planning to dilute sanctions against Belarus – the continent’s last remaining dictatorship – despite last weekend’s rigged elections. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the poll, in which none of the 70 opposition candidates were elected to the 110-seat parliament, failed to meet international democratic standards.
The [read full story]

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Belarus: elections will test opposition more than regime?

By Michael Allen on September 10, 2008

The Belarusian opposition needs a fundamental reassessment of its strategy if it is to reconnect with the electorate in the run-up to the September 28 parliamentary elections. “There is no clear agency of change,” analyst Vitali Silitski told a meeting at the National Endowment for Democracy today.
Civil society has overtaken the country’s divided opposition parties [read full story]

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Belarus – “pre-emptive authoritarianism” at work

By Michael Allen on June 16, 2008

State-run TV in Belarus has broadcast a three-part documentary which accused democracy foundations of bank-rolling the country’s opposition and sponsoring a coup d’état, RFE/RL reports. The program claimed that “Belarusian militants” are being trained by activists from earlier color revolutions at camps in the Ukraine sponsored by the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI).
 ”It is totally [read full story]

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