Why Belarus?

Abstract This chapter examines why Belarus matters by tracing its post-Soviet evolution into an authoritarian state under President Aliaksandr Lukashenka. It highlights the country’s strategic location between Poland and Russia, its Chernobyl legacy, and its crucial role in Russian energy transit, while analyzing how Belarus remained largely unnoticed in the West until recent upheavals. The chapter details Lukashenka’s consolidation of power through referendums, repression, and manipulation, which transformed Belarus into a dictatorship and alienated it from democratic reforms seen elsewhere in eastern Europe. It also explores Belarus’s shifting foreign policy, particularly its growing dependence on Russia and the critical turning point of the 2020 election and protests. Finally, the chapter challenges simplistic portrayals of Belarus, arguing that its identity and authoritarianism result from deliberate internal forces, not merely external Russian influence.