The Dictator Strikes Back

Add this to the “entertaining dictators” category:

Belarus to Freeze Accounts of George Bush, Condoleezza Rice

Belarus is ready to freeze the accounts of U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Such is the Minsk response to an earlier decision of the U.S. to freeze the American accounts of President Alexander Lukashenko.

“We’ll apply appropriately symmetrical measures to George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice. We’ll freeze their accounts and seize their assets,”Â? Belarussian Security Council Secretary Viktor Sheiman was quoted by Interfax as saying in an interview with the National State Television and Radio Company. “It’s clear to everyone that neither Lukashenko, nor I have or can have any bank accounts in the U.S. The U.S. administration has been looking for these accounts for ten years now. And the Belarusian president said ten years ago that he would give this money to anyone who finds it — if he ever does,”Â? Sheiman said.

Belarus, the Switzerland of the former USSR, is surely a banking capital in which the US has many a bank account. But according to the article, why would Belarus freeze our accounts if they don’t have any in the US to freeze? And I wonder if they’ll be freezing European assets too?