Belarus taking the express road to serfdom

Europe’s last dictator is considering drastic measures to keep workers in the country’s wood-processing industry from quitting to take better paying jobs in Russia:  "A decree is being prepared that says that until the end of the planned modernization and reconstruction of [wood-processing] enterprises [in 2015], workers are forbidden from quitting their jobs," Lukashenka announced ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/GettyImages
VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/GettyImages
VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/GettyImages

Europe's last dictator is considering drastic measures to keep workers in the country's wood-processing industry from quitting to take better paying jobs in Russia:

Europe’s last dictator is considering drastic measures to keep workers in the country’s wood-processing industry from quitting to take better paying jobs in Russia:

 "A decree is being prepared that says that until the end of the planned modernization and reconstruction of [wood-processing] enterprises [in 2015], workers are forbidden from quitting their jobs," Lukashenka announced during a visit to the Barysaudrev wood-processing plant in Barysau, a bleak industrial city about 40 kilometers northeast of Minsk, on November 30. "Workers cannot quit their jobs without the agreement and permission of the management of the enterprise."

He added that workers who left their jobs despite the warning would be sentenced to compulsory labor and returned to the production line.

Forcing people to work — why has no one thought of this idea before?

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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