The blood-soaked quagmire that is Ukraine and recent statements from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson alluding to the notion that regime change in Syria is off the table, indicate that the US policy of toppling governments it doesn’t like may be a thing of the past. However, western meddling in Belarus says otherwise.
Every few years Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko has what seems to be an obligatory dispute with Russia, generally over energy prices. In both the 2004 and 2007 spats, the crisis was amicably solved in short order.
But during each disagreement, Lukashenko tended to purposely exaggerate the nature of the dispute in order to enhance his own personal prestige. It’s all a bit childish, as Russia and Belarus form a Union-State, making Russia and Belarus the two closest fraternal states of both the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eurasian Union.
The past couple of days have seen a flurry of statements and actions from the Belarussian side indicating that President Lukashenko is on the brink of pivoting his country away from Russia.
On November 13, 2015, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) terminated the membership of the Russian Athletics Federation for an unspecified period due to what remain to be questionable doping allegations. As a result, all Russian track and field athletes have been banned from competing in all international events, including world championships and the Olympics, under the flag of the Russian Federation.
