Many Belarussians feel more at home with Russia than with their own woebegone new country.

ECONOMIST: Ex-Soviet Union: A ghost lurks | The

His critics hope that dissatisfied Belarussians will realise their own strength, or that the fractious opposition will unite.

ECONOMIST: Belarus

Last year Ukrainians crossed the border with Poland 6m times, Belarussians 4m times.

ECONOMIST: Poland should be smart as well as tough

If the Belarussian Central Electoral Commission is to be believed, more than 70% of Belarussians do not see how absurd the situation is.

BBC: NEWS | Europe | Press denounces Belarus poll

It is understandable that many Belarussians and Ukrainians, as well as Russians, should hanker after the undemocratic but comforting order of the past.

ECONOMIST: Setting Slavs free | The

Belarussians, Germans, Jews, Lithuanians, Slovaks and Ukrainians, who make up around 1m of Poland's 39m people, are setting up cultural centres, schools and religious centres.

ECONOMIST: Poland

And Russian television, which most Belarussians already prefer to the stunningly boring and servile local programmes, could undermine him as brutally as it did Mr Putin's opponents in Russia.

ECONOMIST: Belarus

But their impact is in any case not that strong, as it is estimated that fewer than 10% of Belarussians have some access to the internet and only 2% use it regularly.

BBC: NEWS | Europe | Belarus stifles critical media

Judging by the most recent scorecard issued by Transparency International, an independent watchdog based in Berlin, the Poles are less corrupt than the Czechs and Latvians but more than the Hungarians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Slovenes and even Belarussians.

ECONOMIST: Corruption in Poland