Belarus, run by “Europe’s last dictator” Alexander Lukashenko, is one of the most repressive countries in the West. Protests, free speech and civil society are all tightly controlled; those who speak out can be beaten, jailed or even killed. Thousands of people took to the streets in the capital, Minsk, and elsewhere to protest a tax on the unemployed. The “law against social parasites” requires people who work less than 183 days a year to pay the government $250 annually. Lukashenko often explains the law in moral terms, saying it is about getting people to pay their fair share.

Source: National Post March 11, 2017 04:18 UTC