One of the lessons of European history is that corridors are bloody dangerous. When we heard Vladimir Putin accusing the west of staging a military coup in Belarus to topple Lukashenko, we listened up because European land grabs are usually preceded by fake allegations and staged incidents. Hitler’s invasion of Poland was preceded by the so-called Gleiwitz incident, an attack on a German radio transmitter – allegedly perpetrated by Polish soldiers, but actually carried out by the Nazis themselves.
