Eli Lake, Columnist

Why Putin Is Backing an Ungrateful Despot in Belarus

Russia’s president is wary of democratic uprisings in former Soviet states.

August 13, 2020 at 1:15 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Protests in Minsk.
Photographer: SERGEI GAPON/AFP

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Russian President Vladimir Putin knows how to troll. In the midst of a democratic uprising in Belarus, in which thousands of citizens have taken to the streets to reject last weekend’s stolen election, Putin offered the nation’s struggling dictator his congratulations.

“I hope your state activity will facilitate mutually beneficial Russian-Belarusian relations in all areas, deepen cooperation within the Union State, and build up integration processes,” he wrote in a congratulatory telegram to Alexander Lukashenko on Monday.