It's just hard for a Westerner to understand. Everything looks so different when you're on that side of the world.
Belarus does have natural resources. They have birch trees. They have the wood fired sauna. And then there are (Byelo) Russian women. It's a formidable combination.
Yeah, just like all North Koreans like Kim Jong Un. The democracy of dictatorship. Putin pays a lot of people all over the world to post Russian propaganda. Apparently even on ET.
Other than Poland, no country in the Central and Eastern Europe has done even satisfactory after 1991. The reason before they were living off the subsidies from the USSR and now those have stopped. US/West has only given limited interest to these countries in the form of investment etc. Some have joined the EU but that has helped mostly in the form of people going to western nations and performing cheap labor (true even in Poland's case). No mega export bonanza seen for these countries even after EU membership. Some middle level performers like Croatia, Czech Republic etc. have done so from their own grit and efforts. This is what the west likes because the West was made by own grit and efforts. The logic is "If I can do, then so can you". In case of Belarus and Ukraine, these will "never" be allowed to leave the Russian sphere. Belarus is the "Little Russia" and Ukraine is the "Origin of Russia". These countries also hold "immense" strategic value in terms of ground warfare in case Russia fights with NATO. This despite huge leverage of Airwar, Cyberwar and Nuke/Missile war in today's military paradigm. Even if Lukashenko leaves, a new dictator with his style will be placed in Belarus and controlled by Moscow via remote button. Lastly, Ukraine joining NATO will be WWIII and I will be heading to the wooded areas far away from the major cities and strategic installments, to avoid the nuclear fall outs.
A fake one preaches one thing and does the other - like the massive looting being done in Venezuela as we speak by their dictator. Lukašenka actually seems to want to improve the country despite being relatively poor with his methods. Resources, yeah, sap from birch trees vs trillions of USD worth oilgas reserves, I wonder which one will come out on top. A lot of Belarussians want to be in the EU rather than remain a Russian puppet or military buffer. There's no official stats on this and the election is a joke, so saying that people want to be with Russia is highly misleading.
No idea what you're talking about because you're missing all the facts. Slovakia is probably the main car exporter of Europe if you adjust for population. Poland was actually lagging all the other ex-Soviet countries for a very long time in the 90s and 00s. Labor movement is normal and it's actually now starting to reverse. Along that comes transfer of knowledge. I won't touch the Baltics because you were talking of Central and Eastern Europe, a different region. You're buying Putin's bluff obviously. A nuclear war would bankrupt all of Putin's buddies overnight and he will never let that happen. It's all about money in Russia, the patriotism factor is for the poor and simple. Don't get me wrong, he will do everything and more to stop this from happening but nuclear war isn't one of those things. Of course he wants everyone to believe nuclear war is an option, that helps his agenda.
"It's all about money in Russia, the patriotism factor is for the poor and simple." Like this fact being brought to the readers. However, it has always been like that i.e. Tsarist Russia where only few are mega rich and rest are mere slaves like in the society. Time and again when Russian entity is threatened, the real Russia rises sidelining the powerful on the top. In WWII, sly and clever Stalin had a slogan of "Fight for Russia" and he skipped the communist message/representation..............this in order to rally the real patriotic Russian mindset of common people. Do not agree on Poland vrs others comparison. Poland is handful of few economic success stories in that region. Greater Poland is something Russia is cautious about. One of the main reasons why Poland succeeded was there was no mafia and lawlessness in Poland. While one or two industries factor can be pointed out like Slovakian cars but economies on the whole is what matters. Other than remittances from exported cheap labor, the Eastern/Central European economies has not benefited much. Putin's bluff? don't think so. Just push him and he will confirm the willingness. That's because Russia does not have many other options available vrs the might of NATO.
How is Poland a success story. Of the EU8, their income is about average and in the 00s they were lagging others like Czechia, Slovenia, Hungary, Estonia. I'm not sure what "Greater Poland" is. Do you mean if Poland would expand it's borders to neighboring countries? I don't see this happening, at all. Looking at the map, one idea Russia probably has is building more bases in Belarus, so that there's has an attack angle on the Baltics from the south and on Ukraine from the north. Also to threaten Poland to some extent.