Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

To link - To Keep Putin Out, Belarus Invites the U.S. and China In
[...]

With Pompeo planning to visit, authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko is looking to play an old game with new players.

[...]

“Crimea and the war in Ukraine was a Rubicon moment that set up much of what is happening today,” Sivitski said. “It
upended relations between Minsk and Moscow, and it also led to a growing Chinese presence being welcomed to Belarus.”

[...]

Still, Belarus remains highly dependent on Russia, with Moscow operating as Minsk’s largest creditor. Belarus’s key export today is derived from products made from subsidized Russian oil. But with Moscow set to scale back its loans and subsidies over the next five years—and Belarus set to lose a potential $12 billion in revenue as a result—Lukashenko has said he aims to cut Russia’s share of trade from half to one-third. While Washington is keen to rekindle relations with Minsk and support Belarus in the face of Russian pressure, Western investors still remain squeamish about the country’s economic climate. This has led Lukashenko to lean on China to lessen his financial dependence on Russia. Unlike Washington, Beijing also makes no demands to ease repression at home—or to surrender control over certain state-owned entities, as Moscow has called for.

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=153138478

Good one.

"Belarus people are saying fucqk fear.
Belarus elections: Shocked by violence, people lose their fear
By Tatsiana Melnichuk BBC News Russian, Minsk 13 August 2020
[...]
A 25-year-old man died in custody after he was detained on Sunday. His mother said he had been held in a police van for hours.
[...]
Some 7,000 people have been detained and you don't have to be protesting to be arrested. My friend's son, a university lecturer, was detained randomly before the elections and spent three days in a cell. The detainee who died in Gomel in southern Belarus, Alexander Vikhor, had been on his way to see his girlfriend, according to his mother.
[...]
People here are angry: with police, authorities and above all President Alexander Lukashenko. No-one I have spoken to has any support for what police are doing.
P - They watch the Belarusian leader speaking on TV and laugh at him. They wonder what he thinks will happen next and how he will live with himself."

Your link - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53762995

Thanks.