Best News with Kim_Jong_Il:Russia guy called Lukashenko is the bogeyman,we're in deep shit
7 replies, posted
No logo this time :v:
[quote](Reuters) - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who began a fourth term as president on Monday after big street protests against his re-election, is a Soviet-style strongman who portrays himself as a man of the people while muzzling dissent.
The burly former state farm boss has dominated the ex-Soviet republic since taking office in 1994, doling out generous welfare and pensions from a command economy underpinned by cheap Russian gas and tax-free crude oil.
On Sunday, he secured nearly 80 percent of the vote in a poll that his opponents say was rigged and which brought tens of thousands out in protest on the streets.
Several presidential candidates and hundreds of opposition supporters were being held on Monday after riot police broke up opposition protests.
The mustachioed, blunt-speaking 56-year-old was dubbed Europe's "last dictator" by the Bush administration and has been equally treated as a pariah by the European Union for most of his rule.
But he has equally irked the Kremlin by his eccentric style of rule and has snubbed Moscow, Belarus's chief benefactor, several times on foreign policy issues.
Analysts say his overtures now to the West are motivated by concern for the sustainability of Belarus's Soviet-style command economy, but they see only cosmetic concessions to the West.
A keen ice hockey player, Lukashenko is proving himself adept at playing one side off against the other, reflecting the location of the country of 10 million people sandwiched between Russia and the European Union and NATO.
But he could face a rougher ride over the next five years. He patched things up with Moscow before the election with a deal over oil and gas pricing, but the ceasefire is short of a peace deal.
The European Union, three of whose member states border Belarus, will want to capitalize and press Lukashenko for economic and political liberalization.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the democracy and rights watchdog, on Monday condemned vote counting in the election as "flawed" and said the police had been too violent in dealing with demonstrators.
In typical combative style, Lukashenko hit back, defending the police, dismissing members of the opposition as being bent on "banditry" and denouncing the OSCE verdict as "amoral."
Lukashenko has used such straight speaking to good effect to burnish his image at home as a down-to-earth man of the people and father of the nation.
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"SEVER BUT FAIR"
Severe but fair," is how he describes himself. His opponents, on the other hand, are "enemies of the people."[/quote]
Sauce:[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BJ35R20101220[/url]
why are these all really big on the ticker
PUT A SPACE AFTER THE COMMA VFBAIHVOBSAVHSD
my OCD is killing me
Ask him if his artillery is any good.
[QUOTE=Heidenreich;26823628]PUT A SPACE AFTER THE COMMA VFBAIHVOBSAVHSD
my OCD is killing me[/QUOTE]
its called a colon
[QUOTE=Mr. Sun;26823806]its called a colon[/QUOTE]
and he's talking about a comma, what's your point? re-read the title
There is also
...Kim_Jong_Il:Russia...
Off with his head.
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