Luke Harding, March 17, 2008, The Guardian

He has been dubbed Europe's last dictator. He is known for jailing his political enemies, closing down theatre productions, and presiding - in the words of one opposition leader - over a "horrible" regime. But Alexander Lukashenko - Belarus' autocratic president - has come up with a novel solution to overcome his pariah status: he has hired the veteran British spin doctor Tim Bell.

According to the president's website, Lukashenko met with Bell last week. The legendary PR guru, who is better known for masterminding Margaret Thatcher's successful election campaigns, was invited to come up with a strategy to improve Belarus' dismal image.

"He would like his country to be better understood, and his successes to be better grasped," Bell told the Moscow Times, following a meeting with the president at his Minsk office. He added: "Lukashenko doesn't see why Belarus can't be a friend to the west and a friend to Russia at the same time."

Bell is no stranger to controversial clients. As well as Thatcher, the 66-year-old conservative party spin doctor has advised Iraq's government on how to promote democracy.

More recently, Bell represented Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky in his bitter battle with Russia's president Vladimir Putin, following the 2006 murder of the Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko.

But Lukashenko is arguably his toughest brief yet. Britain - together with the rest of the European Union, and the US - has imposed a visa ban on Lukashenko and other top Belarus officials. In 2005, US secretary of state Condeleeza Rice named Belarus an "outpost of tyranny". Human rights groups, meanwhile, accuse Lukashenko, president since 1994, of presiding over a grim imitation-Soviet regime - complete with old-style secret police, fraudulent elections, and jailed opponents.

Today, one leading opposition figure told the Guardian that Bell's new job was a "mission impossible". "The regime is horrible. There are gross violations. We don't have free elections. We have political prisoners. Independent press is almost non-existent," Andrei Sannikov, Belarus' former deputy foreign minister, said.

Asked why Lukashenko had now decided to turn to Bell for help, he said: "It's the economic situation. It's getting worse."

He went on: "Lukashenko is trying to preserve power. He understands that Russia will not help him. He is attempting to diversify his resources, and his relationship, with the outside world."

In late 2007, Russia, Belarus' neighbour and only significant political ally, said it was ending deliveries of cut-price gas to Minsk - dealing a severe blow to the country's economy.

With Russia's support apparently no longer guaranteed, Lukashenko has turned to the west, indicating he wants to end his country's international isolation. Apparently this also means Britain.

Last week, Lukashenko told a delegation of British businessmen, including Cecil Parkinson, that Britain could soon become Belarus' biggest investor. "Belarus is a European state and, historically, our people have done a lot for Europe," Lukashenko said.

The dictator has embarked on a few modest reforms. He began a process of releasing political prisoners - one of the international community's key demands - only to stop again. The country's best-known dissident, Alexander Kozulin, who was jailed for leading protests against Lukashenko's 2006 re-election, remains locked up.

Asked whether he would urge Lukashenko to implement democratic changes, Bell told the Moscow Times: "Yes, of course. But I view our work as more of an extension of policy making rather than policy-making itself."

Belarus is not the only unloved regime that has reached for a bit of British PR magic. According to industry sources, both Iran and Syria have sought the help of British PR firms. Even Zimbabwe has tried to recruit a British agency - unsuccessfully.