Anne Applebaum: Watch Putin’s plans for Belarus

FILE In this file photo taken on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018, Russian President Vladimir speaks during his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia. U.S. and European sanctions have restricted Russia’s access to international capital markets, limited imports of Western energy and military technologies and spooked international investors. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) On Sept 10, 2001, I published a column about Belarus, the former Soviet republic squeezed between Russia and Europe. It described how the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko was stealing elections, keeping tight control over the media and the economy, harassing political opponents and occasionally murdering them. Lukashenko, I wrote, was Europe's longest-standing dictator.

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