President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on 22 February accused the opposition of seeking Western economic sanctions against Minsk and denied the opposition the right to call Belarus its own country, Belarusian Television reported. He also blasted the West for sponsoring what he called a “blue or cornflower revolution.” “The West spares no money for [funding the Belarusian opposition],” Lukashenka said. “They consider that Belarus is ripe for some sort of an orange or, I’m [even] terrified to utter it out loud, some blue or cornflower — which is the same thing, I think — revolution. We have already had enough of that blueness!” In Belarusian poetry, blue cornflower stands for a popular symbol of the native country. Some Belarusian oppositionists have proposed the blue cornflower as a symbol for an anti-Lukashenka revolt. Lukashenka’s mentioning of “blue” and “blueness” appears to be a play on the semantic connotations of these words, which in the post-Soviet area denote homosexuality. –RFE/RL

Lukashenka is probably taking a not-so-subtle swipe at George Soros and his sinister “Open Society” front groups. Soros has been instrumental in fomenting pseudo-revolts throughout Eastern Europe, as well as pushing for “homosexual rights”