Belarus

August1991 · March 21, 2006

Paul Wells is curiously raising this otherwise unknown election in an unknown country.

Minsk? Pinsk? What's the difference? Huh?

I happen to know something about Belarus and my suggestion to Canadians is not to get involved. Then again, maybe Wells has a Russian girlfriend born in Minsk.

For the curious, here's a link.

geoffrey · March 21, 2006

The last thing I want to see is another Ukraine, which is what this sounds like it's turning out to be.

Yushchenko only won the second run-off by 2%. Not much considering the other candidate was destroyed by allegations of poisioning, corruption and Soviet agendas. Yushchenko democratically lost the first election, lets not be naive.

And now that he's in power, he's turned out to be as big of a trouble maker as Yanukovych was.

When a large group of protestors can get the world to pressure countries into folding to their demands, I worry. It smells alot like Yugoslavia and Georgia in terms of foreign pressure against a government that is at odds with our views. It's ridiculous for a group to demand revotes every time they lose. The victor is obviously painted in a negative light and will generally lose.

Let's respect the soverignty of other nations and let them sort out their elections themselves. As long as they are conducted peacefully, we have no business in them. Ukraine or Belarus.

August1991 · April 1, 2006

If you are interested (or if you have the patience) to read an absurd discussion by English Canadian Leftists about the political situation in Belarus, then check this out.

These people know absolutely nothing about Lukashenko, Belarus, the Soviet Union or (I suspect) Life in the Real World.

But their comments are informative, because they betray Western optimism.

I must admire.

August1991 · April 22, 2006

Canada refused to allow Belarussian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky's plane to land for refueling en route to Cuba on Thursday, a Belarussian diplomat and Canadian officials said.
Ottawa, which last month froze most ties with Belarus to protest against the controversial March 19 presidential vote, said it had strong concerns about the country's commitment to democratization and human rights.

"In light of these concerns, we were not prepared to facilitate the entry of senior-level representatives of the Belarussian regime onto Canadian soil," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Pamela Greenwell.

Reuters

This is Harper's hand. (Is this what Canadians want?)