I had gravely mixed reactions to this Washington Post editorial in which the editors recommend that President Biden adopt a more active posture with respect to Belarus:
To start, the Biden administration ought to match or exceed the European Union’s most recent round of sanctions on Mr. Lukashenko’s henchmen. Mr. Lukashenko’s rule is buttressed by a network of moneybags who regularly peel off profits from state enterprises and resources, redirecting cash to the dictator and his security services, allowing them to go on tormenting Belarus citizens. These regime oligarchs — such as Alexander Zaitsev, Alexei Oleksin, Nikolay Vorobey, Alexander Mashensky, Alexander Zingman and Mikhail Gutseriev — provide the fuel that keeps Mr. Lukashenko in power. The United States ought to follow Brussels in seeking to isolate them and empty the regime’s cash registers — no loopholes, no looking the other way.
The United States also can extend a hand to the beleaguered folks inside Belarus. Lately, Mr. Lukashenko’s thugs have been seizing activists to extract contacts from their phones, then arresting everyone on the list. The activists need Internet circumvention techniques, financial support through cryptocurrency, and replacement of the equipment the regime has confiscated.
Depending on your operative definition of “democracy”, I support more democracy everywhere including the United States. My operative definition includes not just voting but participation and defense of civil liberties.
On the other hand I think most Americans including most American politicians have little actual knowledge of Belarus. It’s not really a country; it’s an ethnicity. The territory of the present Belarus was part of Russia then the Soviet Union since the 18th century. Before that it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Empire. It has no natural borders. Just squiggly lines on a map. I don’t know how to disaggregate support for Belarus from antagonism towards Russia.
Russia’s interests in Belarus will inevitably be greater than ours and particularly the interests of the present irredentist Russia. I don’t think that aggravating Russia for S&G is a particularly great idea.
I have no idea of just how popular the anti-Lukashenko movement in Belarus actually is and I doubt the editors do, either.
Reads like its ok for us to undermine disfavored governments and absolutely shocking and beyond the pale when they reciprocate.