vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #161 / Special reports / Reading article...

It could have been 20 years ago – the drab bureaucrats filling the front rows of the hall, the naval cadets packed behind them, the red curtains and bunting, the oversized bust of Lenin wrathfully jutting his muzzle like a Scottish terrier that has spotted a squirrel on the other side of a window pane.

Strung across the stage was a banner with the legend, "We Heartily Welcome the President of Our Brother Republic, Belarus." And when Primorye Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko escorted his brother-republican, Alexander Lukashenko, to the stage of the Marine Academy, the welcome was hearty indeed.

President Lukashenko, who was returning Feb. 23 from the Olympics in Japan, struck a sympathetic chord with his listeners as he reminded them of their common history and called for a return to Soviet-style economy.

The crowd laughed when he recalled breaking up a protest by "fascists" who opposed his government. They clapped when he warned that there are other nations out there who are scheming to conquer Russia. And they cheered Lukashenko's fantasies about dealing with economists who want Belarus to adopt Western-style capitalism: "I wish they could go to the ore mines and work there and see what the real economy is like."

Lukashenko is known as an authoritarian who jails journalists and has taken to referring to representative government as "dermocratia" -- "sh--ocracy." President Yeltsin himself temporarily banned Lukashenko from making such visits to the Russian provinces last October, even though Lukashenko's Belarus is trying to cobble together some kind of reunion with Russia.

The audience included everyone from Krai Duma members to navy cadets. In a navy that has been tainted by scandal in recent years, Lukashenko's praise found a willing audience. "I believe in the future of the Pacific Fleet," he declared.

"Everything he said was right," one cadet, Alexei Komes, called from a mob of shorn boys in blue who stampeded from the hall afterwards. And during a question-and-answer session moderated by Nazdratenko, one questioner handed over a note that read, "I'm from Belarus and I'm proud of you." "Woman are still proud of me," the president noted, smoothing his hair over his bald spot.

While much of the former Soviet Union is making steps toward a more open economy, Lukashenko insisted on the necessity of central control. Belarus has forbidden factories to close: They are free to produce a different product, but they can't shut down and throw workers out onto the streets. He expressed a profound distrust of those seeking to make money in a market economy.

"These reformists, they are thieves and thugs," he said. "They always raised the prices as much as possible."

Lukashenko sprinkled his talk with references to the joint history of Russia and Belarus. Together they battled Germany in World War II, and their common history stretches back centuries.

"We have a joint history as peoples because Russia and Belarus were created together," Lukashenko said. "It is impossible to annihilate the glory of the Soviet Army. ... There is no single nation that is so faithful to friendship with Russia [as Belarus]."

Some have suggested that Lukashenko has ambitions beyond his small nation of 12 million people. But in his talk, he dismissed such speculation. "I am president of a wonderful country," he said. "I have everything a President needs -- airplanes and bodyguards and a luxurious car."

Gov. Nazdratenko, for one, was pleased with meeting with his "comrade president." Belarus and Primorye will appoint a joint commission to examine ways to increase trade between the two areas -- trucks from Belarus, fish from Primorye. After all, he added, "We have in common similar views on the privatization of the state economy."