In Belarus, a Parasite Tax Saps the President's Strength

Things are not going well for the Belarusian government. The country's economy has sunk into a malaise that it cannot seem to recover from, and Minsk's relationship with its longtime ally, Russia, is on the rocks. To make matters worse, one of the longest and most widespread protest movements in Belarus' post-Soviet history has arisen over the past month -- unrest that is likely to only deepen if President Aleksandr Lukashenko refuses to walk back his unpopular "social parasite tax."...