Ironfisted Belarus Boss Walls Out West

MINSK, Belarus —  If there is one thing that really annoyed Belarussian President Alexander G. Lukashenko, it was having to share the grounds of his presidential compound with foreigners.

Western ambassadors, invited by Lukashenko’s predecessor, lived in houses scattered all over the president’s mini-Camp David. Right across his fence was the home of U.S. Ambassador Daniel Speckhard, who offended Lukashenko even more by inviting dissidents to dinner. Moreover, by a quirk of Soviet plumbing, the pipes bringing water to the president’s residence ran directly through Speckhard’s house. Some say Lukashenko feared an American plot to poison the water.

Citing the need for urgent water and sewer line repairs, Belarus last month ordered the diplomats to move out, then locked them out of the compound. The United States and seven other nations retaliated by recalling their top diplomats from Belarus--the largest exodus of ambassadors from a European country since the Cold War.

Now Lukashenko has the Drozdy compound all to himself, a fitting monument to a president whose main accomplishment after four years in power is isolating his nation of 10 million people from the West.

Since winning the presidency, Lukashenko has given himself unrivaled power in Belarus, taking control of parliament, the courts and the media, and arresting hundreds of his opponents.

The State Department has labeled him “an authoritarian dictator.” He likes to be called batka, the Belarussian word for daddy.

Of the 15 countries formed by the breakup of the Soviet Union, Belarus is among the most determined to retain its Soviet ways. Lukashenko has rolled back the budding capitalism of the early 1990s, halted the privatization of state-owned enterprises and established what he calls “market socialism.” He typically blames the West for Belarus’ problems, even attributing his athletes’ shortage of medals at the Winter Olympics in Japan to a Western “mafia” conspiracy.

“He has almost created a new Iron Curtain between Belarus and the West,” said Andrei Sannikov, international coordinator of the dissident group Charter ’97. “Dissent is not tolerated in Belarus. He is building a repressive system. The eviction of the ambassadors is a dangerous sign for all of us.”

It would be easy to dismiss the 43-year-old Lukashenko as a small-time despot if not for his driving ambition to rule a reunited Soviet Union. He has pushed for a closer union with Russia that could lead to the creation of a joint Russian-Belarussian presidency. And he has made frequent campaign-style trips to Russia’s provinces, where his message of restoring Soviet glory has a strong appeal to Russians nostalgic for the Communist past.

“The integration of post-Soviet space is the only road to peace and stability, and for the West as well,” Lukashenko said in a recently published book of quotations reminiscent of Chairman Mao Tse-tung’s “Little Red Book.”

Hitler, Stalin Admired

Located at the geographic center of Europe, Belarus has long served as a barrier between Russia and the West. Seldom independent, it has been dominated for much of its history by neighboring Russia, Poland and Lithuania. Belarus lost 2.2 million people--a quarter of its population--in World War II and was occupied by both Hitler and Stalin. Since becoming president, Lukashenko has expressed his admiration for both.

Tall, fiery and charismatic, Lukashenko is an avid athlete who works out frequently with the national hockey team. Recently, he shut down one of the main boulevards of Minsk, the capital, so he could rollerskate undisturbed down the middle of the street in his red spandex shorts. He tries to cover his baldness by combing strands of hair from one side over the top. When he moved to Minsk, he left his wife behind on the farm, explaining that he makes up for her absence by devoting himself to sports.

Steeped in the Soviet style of management as a collective-farm director from northeastern Belarus, Lukashenko rose to prominence by attacking corruption in the country’s post-Soviet government. In 1994, he became Belarus’ first president since independence, in balloting deemed fair by international observers.

His desire to turn back the clock became clear in 1995, when he revived Belarus’ Soviet-era symbol of wheat, flax and a rising sun as the emblem of the new nation. The same year, he earned widespread condemnation when his government shot down and killed two American balloonists who were flying over Belarus during an international race. Lukashenko maintained they were spying and has never apologized.

Lukashenko pushed through a referendum in the fall of 1996 that made him the unchallenged head of state and gave him control over the court and legislative branches. It also extended his term as president until 2001, an extra two years. The referendum was widely regarded as fraudulent and has never been recognized by many nations, including the United States.

“In November 1996, Lukashenko committed a coup and established a dictatorship in the country,” said Yuri V. Khodyko, vice chairman of the Belarus Popular Front, one of the nation’s main opposition groups. “Lukashenko and his clique have turned Belarus into a large-scale model of the restoration of Soviet ways.”

Since expanding his powers, Lukashenko has seized control of the media, taking over Belarussian television and radio, shutting down the largest independent newspaper and jailing journalists. The Belarus Popular Front estimates that the government has arrested 1,000 dissidents. Some have been sentenced to years in prison. Others have been ordered to pay heavy fines. Many have been beaten by police.

“Their leadership [Lukashenko] doesn’t care about the rule of law,” State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said in Washington, “and is acting like an authoritarian dictator who is unable to understand the basic difference between right and wrong.”

The international group Human Rights Watch recently called on Belarus to release political prisoners, halt the arbitrary arrest of demonstrators, investigate beatings by police and rescind restrictions on the press.

Lukashenko’s response is to be found in his book of quotations: “The uncompromising opposition undertakes any provocation not just to rock our ship of state but to turn it over,” he says, adding at another point: “Human rights include the right to labor, the right to medical aid, the right to receive your wages. Let’s not talk here only about problems of freedom of speech.”

Economic Meltdown

With his centralized control of the economy, Lukashenko last year created Belarus’ “economic miracle”--a growth rate of 10.4%. But it turned out he produced prosperity mainly by printing money, more than doubling the number of Belarussian rubles in circulation.

This spring, the currency collapsed, inflation soared to an annual rate of 130%, the Central Bank spent all its cash reserves and the average monthly wage dropped to the equivalent of $50. Looking for a scapegoat, Lukashenko jailed the head of the Central Bank and imposed price controls.

For now, Belarus’ economy is propped up by Russia, which continues to supply energy to the country without collecting the hundreds of millions of dollars it is owed in payment. Some critics say Lukashenko’s regime would collapse if not for support from its big neighbor--even as Russia itself turns to the West for multibillion-dollar injections of financial aid.

Belarussian officials maintain that they are being pushed into a closer alliance with Russia by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s recent admission of Poland to its ranks.

“The West is trying to fence us off,” said Ivan Pashkevich, deputy head of the presidential administration. “We would like to move closer to Europe, but Europe puts a cordon in our way by admitting Poland to NATO. You think it’s us who is rebuilding the Iron Curtain. We think it’s you.”

Lukashenko’s backing is strongest in rural areas, where his message is delivered effectively by the state-controlled media. In the village of Lasheny, about 20 miles from Minsk, residents voiced their support for Lukashenko--despite complaints about rising prices.

“Judging from what we see on TV, we like him because he’s a simple man,” said Lidia Lazurshaya, carrying a scythe and a basket of fresh grass to feed her calf. “He may resort to severe measures, but he will never oppress the people because he’s one of us.”

Rural Supporters

The drama over the diplomats’ residences, in which Lukashenko has cast himself as a victim of the West’s conniving ways, has also played well in the countryside.

“I think Lukashenko was right and the ambassadors were wrong,” said Vasily Matiyevsky, a retired tractor driver who proudly wears an old jacket with the initials USSR over his heart. “They tried to intimidate us. He told them we’ve got our honor left. We’ve got our dignity. No one’s going to take that away from us.”

After Belarus became independent in 1991, new ambassadors arriving from the West were invited by Stanislav S. Shushkevich, then-chairman of the Belarus Supreme Soviet, to live at the Drozdy compound on the edge of Minsk in what had been the summer houses of top Communist Party officials.

Despite Lukashenko’s later order, Speckhard and other ambassadors living in the compound refused to leave, citing the Vienna Convention agreement that says the territory of an ambassador’s residence cannot be violated. U.S. officials noted that the house had experienced no problems with its plumbing or power supply.

In June, the government shut off water and telephones to the compound and welded the gates to Speckhard’s residence shut. In response, the U.S., Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria withdrew their ambassadors from Belarus. The United States also told Belarus that its ambassador to Washington, who was away on vacation, would not be allowed to return.

Belarus escalated the conflict earlier this month by tearing down the fence around Speckhard’s residence and posting guards on what Washington considers U.S. territory.

Last week, 25 nations, including the United States and most of Europe, banned Lukashenko and other top Belarussian officials from visiting their countries. The United States also suspended a handful of exchange programs with Belarus.

After the 25 nations announced their ban on Belarussian visitors, Lukashenko gave no sign that he will give in--and once again tried to shift blame onto the West.

“This is the usual blackmail and pressure,” the president told reporters. “If it wasn’t Drozdy, it would be something else. They don’t like Lukashenko.”