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> But how often do Lukashenko and his circle actually fly out of Belarus anyway If you are a Belorusian elite with kids in US and UK schools, money in Switzerl

> But how often do Lukashenko and his circle actually fly out of Belarus anyway If you are a Belorusian elite with kids in US and UK schools, money in Switzerland etc, living comfortably so long as Lukashenko is president. Then suddenly your assets are frozen, and your children can't travel to London when their next semester in the very expensive school starts. All because Lukashenko had to discipline some kid. You aren't going to be happy about that little stunt, and Lukashenko will be told.

thu2111 5y ago
That strategy has, I think, never worked in the history of dictatorships. It probably won't start working now.
- alkonaut 5y ago
  It at least has a very low cost so even if it has marginal success it seems like an easy call. However, it can’t stop there. In this case, unfortunately, it has to get worse before it gets better for the average citizen in Belarus.
  - thu2111 5y ago
    I used to agree. These days I don't. I find it very harsh and unsympathetic to use a strategy that can be summed up as, "we will make your life as shit as possible in the hope that despite having no access to military power you nonetheless start a civil war in which you will probably die without achieving anything, and if you don't, you just won a civil war so your whole country is destroyed and lots of people hate you for it". If the west is serious about taking down foreign dictators it needs to man up and start assassinating them, either with hit squads or drone strikes. No pussyfooting around and hiding behind the hope that locals will get the blood on their hands so the foreign bureaucrats don't have to. And if the EU isn't willing to do that, then it should be trying to do what it can to make life better for the Belarusians, just like a doctor would try to help a sick patient even if they spent a lifetime smoking and thus in some way might have some culpability for it.

thu2111 5y ago

That strategy has, I think, never worked in the history of dictatorships. It probably won't start working now.

alkonaut 5y ago
It at least has a very low cost so even if it has marginal success it seems like an easy call. However, it can’t stop there. In this case, unfortunately, it has to get worse before it gets better for the average citizen in Belarus.
- thu2111 5y ago
  I used to agree. These days I don't. I find it very harsh and unsympathetic to use a strategy that can be summed up as, "we will make your life as shit as possible in the hope that despite having no access to military power you nonetheless start a civil war in which you will probably die without achieving anything, and if you don't, you just won a civil war so your whole country is destroyed and lots of people hate you for it". If the west is serious about taking down foreign dictators it needs to man up and start assassinating them, either with hit squads or drone strikes. No pussyfooting around and hiding behind the hope that locals will get the blood on their hands so the foreign bureaucrats don't have to. And if the EU isn't willing to do that, then it should be trying to do what it can to make life better for the Belarusians, just like a doctor would try to help a sick patient even if they spent a lifetime smoking and thus in some way might have some culpability for it.