Are dictators like Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "testing" President Biden? The Washington Post's Brian Klass thinks so, arguing that they had a "free pass" while former President Donald Trump was in the White House and now want to see how serious his successor is about standing up to them.
Just this past week, Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya received political asylum in Poland after state authorities tried to force her to leave Tokyo because she criticized her coaches. Tsimanouskaya feared returning to Belarus, where she thought she might face prison time. Then, on Tuesday, Belarusian anti-government activist Vitaly Shishov was found dead in a park in Ukraine. The case hasn't been solved yet, but there are suspicions that he was killed by agents of the Lukashenko regime. The fact that the incidents took place (allegedly in the latter case) beyond Belarus' borders show that Minsk is growing increasingly emboldened and Lukashenko isn't too worried about the international response.
But Klass believes Biden needs to change his Belarusian counterpart's perception and go beyond "run-of-the-mill" sanctions. A "more robust response," in Klass' opinion, would include: sanctioning "the all-important petrochemical industries in Belarus," cracking down on "tax havens that allow Belarusians to launder crooked cash," developing "an international pro-democracy fund to suppor the Belarusian opposition more directly," offering aslyum to Belarusian dissidents, and potentially "using some limited cyber operations against Belarusian regime targets as warning shots."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Of course, Lukashenko isn't the only authoritarian figure out there, and Klass wants Biden to send a signal to all of them in a "major speech" in which he would make clear that deterring dictators was at the heart of his foreign policy agenda, which Klass writes could become known as "the Biden Doctrine." Read Klass' full column at The Washington Post.
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
-
Trump demands millions from his administrationSpeed Read The president has requested $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for previous federal investigations
