This is kind of amazing. At the Russia–Belarus border, it’s not just that there are no inspections or passport control—you don’t even have to stop. You just slow down a little. I remember that two years ago, crossing the Russia–Ukraine border took two hours, and the customs officers really got on my nerves. Minsk is an awesome city. Beautiful people. I thought it would be some backwater where people in tracksuits hide from Lukashenko’s OMON riot police. Nothing like that. It’s a spacious city, there are no traffic jams, there’s construction everywhere, and roads are being repaired all over the place. There are billboards on the streets where a guy with a huge mustache says: We are Belarusians.