US intelligence forecasts crisis in Belarus in 2013

The U.S. top intelligence official presented his assessment of global threats to the United States in an annual report to a Senate committee on Tuesday.

The Clapper report says, as quoted by RIA Novosti news agency, that Alexander Lukashenka has survived the crisis that was the biggest threat to his power since 1994.  Financial assistance from Russia helped overcome most of the negative effects of the crisis and also led to a gradual decay of the opposition movement.

"However, the economic situation in Belarus remains fragile, and Lukashenka's refusal from structural reforms makes preconditions for a new economic crisis in 2013," the report says.

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