Democracies

Belarus used to be part of the Soviet Union. It`s only had a president since 1994, and the same man, Alexander Lukashenko, has been president there since they established the office of president 26 years ago. He`s the only president independent Belarus has ever known.

Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin have talked about joining their two countries together.

In August, Lukashenko was facing election. So he threw the most promising opposition candidate who was running against him into prison.

The candidate`s wife, a teacher who had never been involved in politics before, ran for president in her husband`s place while her husband was in prison. And citizens of Belarus went to the polls in August, and she apparently won.

Lukashenko declared victory for himself and people turned out in the streets by at least the hundreds of thousands, if not the millions, protesting. Tens of thousands of people were arrested. Some died in custody. Hundreds of people made credible allegations of torture by police in custody.

The candidate is in exile now, in Lithuania. All the opposition leaders, all the protest organizers have been arrested or chased out of the country.

And Lukashenko sent up a MiG fighter jet to intercept a commercial passenger plane that had taken off from Greece and was flying to Lithuania. Those are two E.U. countries. It was over Belarus` air space. The fighter jet forced the plane to land inside Belarus. And the 26-year-old they took off that plane was the editor of NEXTA, the opposition newspaper.

You can have democracies in name only.