When Alexander Lukashenko rose from obscurity to take power in Belarus 27 years ago, he received some advice from Boris Yeltsin. Belarus’s previous leader Vachislav Kebich was known to go missing for days, a tendency he shared with Yeltsin, but Yeltsin had noted how it had weakened the other man. “‘You didn’t take power,” he told Lukashenko, “Kebich lost it. You either keep power or you lose it.’ For 27 years since that first election in 1994 – the only one which may not have been rigged – Lukashenko has held on to power. The actions of Belarus last week…

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