Word: lukashenko
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...part to ensure its loyalty after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has even been allowed to buy Russian crude oil on the cheap, refine it at home and sell it on to Europe at a huge profit. But in the past three years, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has started to assert his independence in subtle ways. Following the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Lukashenko declined to recognize the breakaway Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, despite pressure from Russia to do so. Lukashenko also joined the E.U.'s Eastern Partnership initiative, created in 2008 to strengthen ties between...
...weeks, Belarus has refused to accept Russia's conditions, putting relations between the countries on ice and threatening to leave swaths of Europe in the cold. Talks between the two sides eventually dissolved into an exchange of letters with competing demands. But despite the tough position Lukashenko staked out, analysts believed that Russia would get its way in the end, as Belarus' economy and security are still deeply dependent on Russia despite improved relations with the West. Lukashenko admitted as much last month when he said that severing ties with the Kremlin - as Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has done - would...