December 04, 2023

No Pictures with Lukashenko, Please


No Pictures with Lukashenko, Please
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko speaking at the COP28 in Dubai. Belarus MFA, Twitter.

On November 30, world leaders gathered in Dubai for the United Nations' annual Conference of Parts (COP) to discuss policies to mitigate climate change. However, regional tensions stole the spotlight: the Presidents of Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland refused to appear in the group picture because Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko would also be in it.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said, "This is called a family photo. Lukashenko does not belong to the family we want to belong to."

Nausėda pointed out the hypocrisy of "standing shoulder to shoulder with the head of a state that has become the springboard for Russian aggression in Ukraine" and pretending like nothing had happened. The Latvian and Polish Presidents, Edgars Rinkēvičs and Anzreij Duda, also refused to appear in the group picture alongside Lukashenko. 

Ukraine is not the only point of contention with the Belarussian head of state. Lukashenko's neighbors have long considered him a threat.

In late 2021, Minsk created a crisis at its border with Poland by tricking and trafficking people from the Middle East and Africa into neighboring territory. Polish and Belarussian police used excessive force against the migrants and left them in a "grey zone" in the woods between both countries. At least 200 people are missing, and 49 have died from wounds, hunger, and freezing conditions.

In 2022, after Wagner Group Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led a mutiny in Russia, the mercenary army was stationed in Belarus. Minsk conducted military drills with Wagner near the Polish border, raising red flags in neighboring countries and leading to the mobilization of troops

The COP28 runs through December 12. Russian Presdient Vladimir Putin will not attend the UN's climate summit. Instead, the Russian delegation is headed by the president's special envoy for climate change, Ruslan Edelgeriev.

You Might Also Like

  • October 11, 2023

"Our Men Are Not Slaves; Bring Them Home"

Relatives of mobilized Russians are demanding the return of loved ones who have been at war for an extended period. Russian authorities are censoring their messages.
Beware the Partisans
  • October 05, 2023

Beware the Partisans

Russia has witnessed nearly 310 cases of arson, explosions, and sabotage in the past 19 months.
Stop My Flight If You Can
  • September 21, 2023

Stop My Flight If You Can

Despite sanctions, Russia imported Boeing and Airbus spare parts worth at least R18 billion in 2022.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

At the Circus
January 01, 2013

At the Circus

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

Faith & Humor
December 01, 2011

Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

The Latchkey Murders
July 01, 2015

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

A Taste of Chekhov
December 24, 2022

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955