Alexander Lukashenko, the beleaguered president of Belarus, obtained a $1.5 billion loan from Russian president Vladimir Putin as Belarus sinks into widespread demonstrations against Lukashenko’s claimed reelection, the BBC reports.
The loan, which will come from the Russian government, is supposedly to refinance Belarusian national debt, however, Belarus has only about $28 million in public debt, roughly 40% of its GDP.
Lukashenko, who has been the President of Belarus since 1994, is a disciple of Putin and his strong-arm tactics. As Putin tries to eliminate political opponents through exile, arrest or assassination, Lukashenko has exiled or arrested his political opponents in his August election.
More than 100,000 protesters took to the streets of Minsk, Belarus’s capital, this weekend to protest the announced results of the election, in which Lukashenko claims he got 80% of the votes. Most western governments support the demonstrators, noting a number of systemic irregularities calling the election results into doubt.
While the meeting in the resort town of Sochi was taking place, Russian and Belarusian military forces were participating in an exercise in Brest in western Belarus.