What should Poland do with the problem of Belarus?

Keep good relations with Lukashenko?
Place an embargo on Belarus?
Send funds to the opposition?
Ignore the whole thing and see what will happen?

None of the above. Incorporate Belarus into Poland, form a new Commonwealth.

Why interfere? Belarus is not a major concern of Poland's. Sending funds to the opposition won't make much of a difference and will only drive a wedge between Lukashenko's Belarus and Poland.

Belarus could be a new market for Poland (assuming they would root out corruption)

What kind of merchants would operate there? Doing what?

Well Belarusians probably have a great demand for basic "western" amenities just like Poland had in the early 90's. It's a huge market

For example? What does Poland need that Belarus has?

Some kind of embargo would be best, but it should be introduced in a way that won't affect ordinary citizens..

Why impose an embargo? More important should be the ensuring of fairness within the electoral process so that Luki doesn't rig it.

You can't ensure anything with Belarus in it's current state. They already tried the donkey carrot way - the stick is broken and the carrot got bitten. Ensuring fairness in Belarus? No such option.

Precisely! Poland would be wise to avoid pitfalls rather than riskily open new fronts.

I doubt Poland will do anything on it's own beside criticism. I'd think that a more possible way would be a joint operation (as in embargo for instance ) by EU.

Belarus presents no real problem for Poland.

But what kind of threat does he pose? Can't he just be left alone?

As Sok has just said, Poland is not under threat at all.

Keep good relation with Belarus and their leader !

Doesn't North Korea pose a thread? This guy is same as Kim just without the warheads. Someone should react when there's smoke and before there is fire.

They should call Lukashenko in Poland and feed him pierogi.

We should borrow from Switzerland one of the amazing devices and bore a tunnel to save all citizens and leave him home alone.

Lukashenko is going to wind up shot by his own people if he carries on long enough....

Belarus will be a free democratic country one day , either the easy way..or the hard way...

Except for the fact that Belarus isn't threatening any countries.


They're free to leave, it's not a North Korea/GDR style "cage them in" country.

Except for the fact, as I mentioned earlier, they don't have enough power to do so. As for now they are only a threat to their own folk.

So one of the few countries in the world to voluntarily disarm themselves of nuclear weapons and doesn't threaten other countries needs to be dealt with? I'm curious to hear your approach to China...

What are you on about? Who doesn't threaten other countries? Where were you for the last 10 years.. Of course North Korea is a glorious innocuous country, so is Lukashenko with his puppet show. I'm not gonna delve any further into this rubbish conversation. Have a good carp.

We're talking about Belarus remember. Belarus doesn't threaten other countries and voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons. Lukashenko is a dictator, fair enough. But you were advocating some sort of intervention. I just don't understand why you'd want to intervene with Belarus, but not China.

Anyway, we're having brisket, as baby Jesus intended.

This is what infamous Bush and his clique was all about: too much thinking and not enough profits involved in "delving". Let's bomb and then write memoirs about how glorious we were. Only then we will be "delving".

Enjoy your carp - it is much easier to delve into a helpless fish.

Poland should do all that what was done to Poland during communism by western countries, which is:
- support opposition
- support external alternative media (in Belarusian language)
- speak loudly about political prisoners (it really helps sometimes to that people to not spend most of the time in jail)

The thing with dictatorship is that you never know when it fail. From outside it can look solid as a stone, every outsider can have an impression like for example "all old people love dictator" but reality can be totally different. Dictatorship is run by fear, that fear hides true society from external world. It is hard to say if it is by analogy with Poland 70', 80' or 88' in Belarus, but make no mistake thinking that Lukaszenko can beat and inprison people and that it will be forgotten. That is not the case, Belarusians will remember that, just like Poles remembered 70' or 80' and when time comes, they will again hit the streets. But whenever it happens it must be by their will, any external force would only split society in half.

With Belarus it can also go another way. It is a country feed by Russia. Everytime West make pressure on Lukaszenko he turns to Russia and sell some piece of economy for support. That was the case this time, when a few days before elections Belarus signed custom union with Russia and Kazakhstan. Sooner or later his ability to please Moscow will end. On the other hand someone said that Belarus to Russia is the same thing as North Korea to China. Both small countries are pain in the ass, but valuable as a geopolitical inconvenience for respectively EU and USA.

Wait - isn't there exit visas for Belarusians? I was under the impression they still had them... maybe I'm getting mixed up with the need for an exit visa for foreigners if their visa has expired. Hmm.

edit : I was right, sort of - permission was needed to cross the Belarusian frontier for Belarusian citizens until 2008. So - it's only in the last 3 years that they've had the ability to leave without interference. Ukraine apparently had a similar law until a few years ago.

Amen to that.


Foreigners need exit visas (don't know if it's still the case, but they were provided at the border back in the day). I don't think that citizens need prearranged exit visas. Will ask.

What problem is Belarus to Poland?

It's little wonder White Russia doesn't need atomic weapons, they know they are securely allied to Russia with Lukaszenko at the helm...

I heard that this weeks protesters will be imprisoned for 15 years! That's a threat to global/ European democracy surely...?