Belarus is to Russia, as RP is to the US

Ganyan yan eh. Ninakaw ni Arroyo at Garci ang presidential elections sa Pilipinas noong 2004. Ninakaw rin ng current "president" Lukashenko ang presidential elections sa Belarus noong 2006.

The difference though is that sinuportahan ng US si Arroyo kahit na nandaya siya, while the US supported the Belarusian Opposition vs. Lukashenko.

Bakit ganon?

Kasi, naging pro-US ulit si Arroyo after the hello garci tapes surfaced. tinigil na niya ang china card.

Sa Belarus naman, pro-Russia at anti-western si Belarusian president Lukashenko, kaya in-encourage ng US na mag-people power ang Opposition, pero pumalpak ito.

Mahirap matanggal si Lukashenko ay dahil maganda ang relasyon niya sa Russia dati. Russia was propping him up and aiding Belarus with cheap oil and gas, and this has helped the Belarusian "miracle" economy. But that may end soon.

More from the Washington Post:

For years, Russia and Belarus have been bound together by Moscow's provision of cheap energy in return for political loyalty. But the Kremlin appears to have tired of subsidizing Lukashenko, whose government could face an economic crisis brought on by higher energy costs.

The two countries have flirted with the idea of forming a political union, but Russia is interested in absorbing Belarus as a province, while Lukashenko has insisted on a union of equal states, an idea the Kremlin finds ludicrous.

Yan ang istorya ng Belarus at Russia.

Sa atin naman, may konting pagkakaiba. Arroyo needs US aid, support and recognition of her legitimacy to prop up her regime. After screwing the US once in Iraq and playing the china card, arroyo is once again pro-US. Dahil nagkaroon siya ng legitimacy crisis nung lumabas ang hello garci tapes. So the US is back to it's old realist foreign policy, last used during the Marcos era. Support arroyo as long as she protects US interest in the region. Even if her admin's corrupt and abusive, her elections are a farce, and the admin main crooks remain unaccountable. Just like in the old Marcos days.

I think what the US is doing to rebuild Mindanao singlehandedly is great, but the republican foreign policy of "looking the other way" and coddling corrupt and illegitimate rulers like Arroyo is not. can't believe i'm saying this, but thank god for the dems. thank you sen. boxer.

The neocon policy is now dead, djb. the republicans are back to propping up corrupt and illegitimate "pro-US" heads (like arroyo, although i don't know how pro-US would she have become kung hindi lumabas ang garci tapes).

Anyway, tignan nyo ang sinabi ng isang commenter ko na nakatira sa Belarus, commenting on this post.

Ok, I understand the point of all of these articles. You are making a simple point. But I would like to remind you that 83% of Belarus voted AGAINST the opposition. This is not a close race; it is an almost completely unanimous decision. And at most, Milinkevich only received 6% of the vote. And what is more, the reason for this is that the Belarusian opposition doesn't do anything for the country but to complain. In the last two years the president of Belarus has been working to find contracts for Belarusian goods which are not allowed on the open markets do to western sanctions. How many tractors has Milinkevich sold? With all his time in the European hierarchy, why couldn't he sell some potatoes, some potash fertilizer, some manufacturing contracts for Belarusian firms?

You make these wonderful, over simplistic statements, it's all very popular. But really, why must you side blindly with the opposition?

why, doesn't THAT rhetoric sound familiar, eh?

And wasn't that election in 2006 that you were referring to not acceptable to the opposition, the US and the EU dahil nga may dayaan?