Belarus: from a Social Contract to a Security Contract?
Journal: The Journal of Belarusian Studies
Year: 2016

In 2014 Aliaksandr Lukashenka reached his twentieth anniversary as President of Belarus, prompting a series of analyses of just how he had managed to survive in power for so long. The best of these need only refi nement. Margarita Balmaceda, for example looks, at how Lukashenka has both extracted rent from Russia by exploiting his foreign policy value and used it skilfully to consolidate his hold on power. Russian subsidies maintain the Belarusian economy; but, she writes, 'while financial suppo