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"Until you start a violent civil war to overthrow your government, we're going to make you, average citizen of Belarus, have a more difficult life."
by ceilingcorner 5y ago
"Until you start a violent civil war to overthrow your government, we're going to make you, average citizen of Belarus, have a more difficult life."
- alkonaut 5y agoThat's effectively what happens. The problem with thee Russian border states is that the hope for strong external intervention isn't very high. But the closeness to russia is why the Annexation of Crimea ad the regime of Lukashenko and a few other dictators still exist. To some extent you can target the elite and decisionmakers. But after a very short while, there is no easy way to separate "people" from the elite. Targeting businesses, exports and so on which is the next step - is always going to make the average citizen worse. But the argument works both ways: ensuring the wellbeing of the people helps the legitimacy and strength of the regime. I don't think anyone thinks it's a good idea to stop short of anything that makes the life of average belorussians worse.