Alexander Lukashenko is the clearest beneficiary of Wagner’s mutiny

IT HAS BEEN over two decades since Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s scheming dictator, has enjoyed such a good press in Russia. Throughout the weekend, Kremlin propagandists lauded his role in halting the mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin at the gates of Moscow. The moustachioed leader deserved a “Hero of Russia’” honour, enthused Vladimir Solovyov, a usually sour-mouthed Kremlin cheerleader. “It’s impossible to overestimate his wisdom and negotiating talent; he showed captainship of the highest order.” Belarusian state media laid it on even thicker. “Ivan Susanin, Kuzma Minin, Prince Pozharsky, Marshal Zhukov and Alexander Lukashenko: this is a list of the people who saved Moscow.”