In arranging an interview with a head of state, the journalist typically makes the first move, sending a request to the press office and hoping somebody responds. Once in a while, when a president really wants to talk, the invitation might go in the other direction. But rarely have the overtures been as persistent as the ones that reached me this spring from the allies of Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus.  It was not immediately clear what the intermediaries wanted. I had never