Is Putin about to make a costly mistake in Belarus?

From 2001 to 2004, as a deputy assistant secretary of state, I was the senior American official to visit Belarus. The United States and European Union were thoroughly dissatisfied with President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s authoritarianism, and US policy mandated that no official higher than a deputy assistant secretary travel to Minsk. EU officials and EU member states observed comparable restrictions. Read more…