Lukashenko Himself Is Becoming A "Black Mark"

• 25.08.2026, 14:18

All the dictators he was friends with met a bad end.

Recently, representatives of some of the most notorious regimes have been paying frequent visits to Lukashenko. Belarus was visited by the head of Myanmar’s military junta Min Aung Hlaing, followed by a delegation from the “Taliban” from Afghanistan arrived.

Why have outcasts like Myanmar’s dictator and representatives of the “Taliban” been visiting Lukashenko lately? What does this indicate?

The website Charter97.org discussed this with former political prisoner and coordinator of the “European Belarus” civic campaign Andrei Voinich:

— It’s very simple. Countries around the world, like people in India, are divided, roughly speaking, into castes. There are first-world, second-world, and third-world countries, and there is, accordingly, the lowest caste—the world’s shudras, that is, outcasts.

Lukashenko and the Lukashenko regime belong precisely to the Shudras. It is an outcast regime, an outcast leader, an outcast dictator, an outcast country, and so on. Consequently, since they are not allowed into the society of normal people—the so-called Brahmins—they have to interact and communicate with one another at all levels.

If we take the regime in Myanmar as an example, it is very similar to the Belarusian one. It, too, is in a state of fairly severe isolation, and it needs to trade in something, because Myanmar’s economy is in just as deep a rut as Belarus’s.

What can the Myanmaris offer? First and foremost, they can offer labor—something Lukashenko desperately lacks. It’s not a certainty, of course, but the likelihood is very high.

As for the “Taliban,” it, like the regime currently ruling Afghanistan, is also facing very serious problems. First, the economy is in severe decline. Second, there are ongoing conflicts with Pakistan, internal discontent is growing, and the opposition is becoming more active. Therefore, the “Taliban,” just like Lukashenko, need to demonstrate in some way that they are not outcasts: “Look, people take us seriously and engage with us.”

This is mutually beneficial PR for both Lukashenko and the Taliban. Lukashenko declares: “Look, I’m respected; people come to visit me; I’m taken seriously; they want to do business with me.” The “Taliban” in Afghanistan is most likely saying the same thing.

— What consequences might Belarus’s ties with the “Taliban” have?

— Well, in reality, nothing major, other than a blow to his image. This once again shows the whole world that Lukashenko is an outcast—that he associates not just with outcasts, but with the outcasts among outcasts.

In other words, he’s even sunk below the lowest depths of dictatorship. As the saying goes, tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are. Like attracts like. Lukashenko is just as much a terrorist. Lukashenko’s regime is, in principle, the same as that of the “Taliban,” only not based on strict religious grounds. Outwardly, it appears more Europeanized. In reality, the difference is minor: the same repression and so on, only with fewer executions.

How might this play out? Lukashenko’s standing in the eyes of the international community will simply plummet, and he’ll be checked off the list yet again. At the same time, it’s very hard to say exactly what the Taliban might have to offer—even though Afghanistan is quite rich in resources—and what, in turn, Lukashenko might have to offer.

Lukashenko, as is well known, has been trading in weapons for quite some time. He very often trades them through gray-market schemes. He may supply weapons to Afghanistan because the Taliban needs them, given that conflicts are brewing there.

And if these weapons are used, for example, against Americans or Pakistanis—and Lukashenko, by the way, is demonstratively friendly with Pakistan as well, I think Islamabad will have some questions: how did Belarusian weapons end up in the hands of the Taliban?

Lukashenko, in essence, is once again trying to sit on two chairs at once. And when he wiggles on them, the chairs slide apart. As a result, he could fall between them and land hard enough on his butt to break his tailbone.

For Belarus, this is, on the one hand, certainly bad, because the standing of today’s Belarus as a country will decline. But for Belarus in the long run, this is good, because the standing of today’s Lukashenko-led Belarus will decline. Consequently, a window of opportunity may open sooner. And because Lukashenko won’t be able to hold on to these seats, that window will be wider.

— Which other notorious regimes might Lukashenko align himself with? Could any of these visitors become a liability for the dictator?

— Lukashenko could meet with absolutely any outcast. There are no obstacles for people as unprincipled and greedy for power and money as Lukashenko and other dictators. I’ll say it again: they’re forced to support one another and maintain contact at every level.

That’s why absolutely any dictator is Lukashenko’s friend. The bloodier, the better for Lukashenko. Here’s an example from history: we all remember how Brezhnev and other General Secretaries of the Soviet Union kissed up to African cannibals and other scum.

As for Lukashenko’s friends, it seems to me that he himself becomes a black mark for other dictators. Because if you look at all his friends, everyone who kissed him, hugged him, or shook his hand ended up badly. In fact, you could practically compile this list month by month. There’s Maduro, Assad, Gaddafi, and Hussein. Virtually all of them met a bad end.

Lukashenko established relations with Cuba—now Cuba is facing problems. I repeat, the list goes on and on. The more despicable the regime in a country ruled by a leader, the more likely it is that he’ll become Lukashenko’s friend. Because Lukashenko himself is a stupid, greedy, unprincipled usurper.