The War of Nerves on Europe's Border Could Turn Hot
The autocrats in Minsk and Moscow know the EU’s weaknesses and how to exploit them. The only question is how far they want to go.
Lukashenko’s pawns.
Photographer: Oksana Manchuk/AFP via Getty Images
Is there any way this stand-off at the border between the European Union and Belarus can still end well? Put differently, how bad could it get? Unfortunately, the answer is: really bad. The scenarios include the death of the migrants, and even a wider war.
A recap: The crisis was manufactured by a cynical dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus. Last year he rigged an election, then cracked down brutally on his domestic opposition. So the EU, which already had sanctions against his regime, added more. In retaliation, if that is the word, Lukashenko decided to use innocent human beings from other countries as hostages to blackmail the EU.