‘Europe’s last dictator’ raises the stakes with the West

By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — For most of his 27 years as the authoritarian president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko has disdained democratic norms, making his country a pariah in the West and bringing him the sobriquet of “Europe’s last dictator.” Now, his belligerence is directly affecting Europe. Angered by European Union sanctions following a harsh internal crackdown on dissent, Lukashenko responded by saying he was loosening border controls against Western-bound migrants. That allowed them to cross EU borders, forcing Poland to send thousands of troops and police to the border in a tense confrontation. The moves are a dramatic escalation for Lukashenko, who became president in 1994 when Belarus was an obscure country that had existed less than three years.