It is said that Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko never misses an opportunity to surprise friends and foes alike. This is certainly true of his response to the outcome of December's presidential election.
In the run-up to the vote on 19 December, Mr Lukashenko's immediate prospects looked bright. Some of the holes in Belarus' budget seemed to have been filled thanks to a last-minute pre-election deal with Russia, which scrapped duties on crude oil deliveries to Belarus (though ...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.