The diplomatic storm raised by the incident might not be of primary concern to Lukashenko. TIME correspondent Yuri Zarakovich reports that the authoritarian president has restored a Soviet-style command economy, and last April responded to a fall in the Belarus ruble by firing and jailing dozens of officials. With Lukashenko citing Hitler's stewardship of Germany as a role model for his presidency, it's fair to assume that diplomatic protocol is not his priority.
U.S. Evicted in Belarus
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Washington is threatening to get out the welding torch after its Belarus ambassador, Daniel Speckhard, yesterday found the gates to his residence welded shut. The government of President Alexander Lukashenko -- a Soviet-era hardliner -- has warned diplomats from 22 countries to leave their residential compound, insisting that it needed repairs. The U.S. denounced the action as a violation of diplomatic conventions, and warned of unspecified retaliation. "We would certainly have options of our own in the welding area," State Department spokesman James Rubin joked.