Bloc may suspend sanctions on Belarus

“We don’t need a base today”, Mr Lukashenko was quoted as saying by Belarusian media on Tuesday.

He said Belarus needed planes, not bases at the moment, adding that he had not discussed it with anyone. She was fined the equivalent of $300, twice the minimum monthly pay, after doing a story about the illegal demolition of 200 homes in a small town. “Maybe they are concerned we might be actually going westward?”

Belarusian journalists Alexander Silich, front, Yekaterina…

He has ruled Belarus since 1994, and is all but certain to win his fifth term in elections on Sunday against token challengers. He also wants to boost his economy, which is exposed to the recession in Russian Federation and shrank by 4 percent in the January-July period.

“Lukashenko is scared”, said analyst Valery Karbalevich.

Lukashenko, 61, appears increasingly confident of his position.

Those pushes have covered a feeling among European Union authorities that is actually Lukashenko, the intimate Moscow supporter known inside of the West as Europe’s “last master”, is starting Belarus to Europe.

Belarus adopted a law in February allowing the government to block websites without obtaining a court order. Small independent newspaper are struggling to survive due to various political and economic pressures.

“Lukashenko is sending a signal that he will remain in power for as long as he likes and is presenting us the next ruler”, Anatoly Lebedko, the leader of the opposition United Civic Party, told AFP. He initially had considered trying to get on the ballot, but in the end chose to call for a boycott of the election instead.

“Let’s not forget that since sanctions (were) imposed… one of the major conditions for lifting them has been a release of political prisoners and I think that Belarus has made significant progress there”, Rinkevics told a press conference alongside Czech counterpart Lubomir Zaoralek.

A man chooses a TV set, as Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is seen on screen, at a shop, during his annual state-of-the-nation address in the Belarus parliament, in Minsk, April 21, 2011. “The candidates are only playing the role of extras in Lukashenko’s circus”.