ASSAILED BY the global financial crisis and urged by western nations to open up his tightly controlled country, President Alexander Lukashenko has ordered officials yesterday to start liberalising life in Belarus.
The EU and United States recently lifted some sanctions on a leader whom Washington has dubbed "the last dictator in Europe". This was an effort to draw him out of Russia's sphere of influence and encourage him to democratise a country where opposition groups are repressed and critical media are not tolerated.
Belarussian banking chiefs said this week that they would "move toward liberalising key economic policies" as they sought a $2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to counteract the potential impact of the credit crunch, which has limited Belarus's ability to borrow money from Russian and western banks.
The comments from Mr Lukashenko - who has ruled his country of 10 million people for 14 years - will raise hopes in Brussels and Washington that he may be willing to loosen his iron grip on all aspects of Belarussian life.
"We should make use of the current situation and take decisive steps towards liberalising the economy and people's lives in general, 'de-bureaucratising' the whole system," Mr Lukashenko told a government meeting.
"Before January 1st we should do the maximum possible . . . it's time to do what we have been afraid to do and what we have not done in the past." Mr Lukashenko did not reveal what concrete measures liberalisation would bring, but underlined that the state would retain its dominant role in shaping Belarussian life.
"We have moved gently towards a free economy and will continue to move gently in that direction," he said. "There is no danger . . . because we will not relinquish the levers of power over the economy and other areas."
