A Russian born Ukrainian novelist, Andrey Kurkov, has written an article about Alexander Lukashenko for the British journal, New Statesman. From this rather concise look at the Belarusian ruler, readers can carry out a few interesting and even controversial points.

The author writes:

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Belarus is that it doesn’t wish to be a state at all. The dream of most Belarussians is to be united with Russia. No other ex-Soviet republic so bemoans the break-up of the USSR. This can be explained by the essentially patriarchal attitude of the country’s citizens and the very high percentage of pensioners - higher than in any other former Soviet country. Add to this the fact that around 20 per cent of the adult population has only primary education, and it is possible to understand why Belarussians are so fond of their “Man of the People” president, Alexander Lukashenko.

Well, to start with, I hate to repeat it again and again, but it is dated to call the inhabitants of Belarus Belarussians. The New Statesman copy editors could’ve googled for different spellings of the word. Maybe they would be surprised to learn that most English-language sources have long switched to the term “Belarusian,” which is grammatically correct as it derives from the name of our country. That is Belarus and not Belarussia.

Contentwise I would argue with the notion that the dream of most Belarusians is to be united with our Eastern neighbor. Check IISEPS data. Well, to make it easier, here’s a table I’ve copy&pasted from their web site. The question was – If a referendum on Russia-Belarus integration is held, how would you vote?

If you say, there are a lot of folks who are pro-integration, I’ll agree with that. But hell no, this is not a majority. And what is even more important, the number of those who consider incorporation of Belarus into Russia as positive is smaller than of its opponents. Check the data here.

Well, heck… I guess I need to express my doubt that “around 20 per cent of the adult population has only primary education.” I tend to think this figure is lower, as the literacy rates according to the stats I have seen are pretty darn high.

I cannot deny the fact that our compatriots were dumb enough to elect such a leader. To make it even worse, now as he ripped us off our constitutional right to elect a government in a fair election, we can hardly do anything about it no matter how high or low the level of education was in Belarus. Well, sure, we can do something. And the amount of the bad publicity our regime receives is a good thing. It helps. The New Statesman ranked Lukashenko among the world’ top 10 worst dictators. I concur. Luka has well deserved that stigma. 12 years of authoritarian rule and counting.

And it’s a shame Belarus figures in the international media almost exclusively courtesy of the regime’s misdoings. As Kurkov points out, “If it were not for the character of its president, few people beyond the borders of the old USSR would be aware of the existence of Belarus.” And that is sad.