The man known as Europe’s last dictator, or the Belarusian Stalin, is a close neighbour of ours; his country shares borders with three member states of the European Union: Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. The Union, it is true, has a neighbourhood policy and money to spend on it, but Belarus has long been the black sheep of the Eastern Partnership; it is also the bête noire of the Council of Europe, whose doors remain closed to it. It is the only country in Europe that still has the death...