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(CNN) -
The deliberate manipulation of immigrants by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, allowing their easy passage through his country to the European Union border, is a classic assault on democracy by a autocrat who knows that any attempt to fight back runs the risk of undermining the bloc's sacred values.
Lukashenko denies the condemnation made by the G7 group, one of the richest democracies in the world, that he is orchestrating this "irregular migration" in an "aggressive and exploitative" campaign, just as he rejects the accusation of the European Union that his re-election As president, last year - his sixth consecutive five-year term - he was a sham.
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Not surprisingly, the veteran autocrat is known outside Belarus as the last dictator in Europe.
For much of this month, the world has watched tired immigrants, some with young children and mainly from the Middle East, being incited and forced in freezing conditions to reach a forest border with the EU.
His growing anger at not being able to cross broke out at times, throwing stones at the Polish border guards, who ended up firing water cannons at them.
In a revealing interview with CNN last week, Lukashenko's Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei laid out the psychology behind his boss's decision to launch a frontal attack on European borders.
"Belarus has shown the dark side of European democracy," he said.
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US President Joe Biden made the fact that democracy is under attack one of the first issues in his term in office.
"We are at a turning point," he told an audience in Germany in February.
"We must show that democracy can continue to serve our citizens in this changed world. That is, in my opinion, our galvanizing mission."
But how to accomplish that mission is something that has yet to be mastered.
Biden promised a "summit of democracies" "early" in his presidency, to be held next month, although details are scant.
Biden's influence is waning among the allies, due to diplomatic mistakes such as the disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan and the AUKUS security pact with Australia and the United Kingdom, which sidelined France. Meanwhile, autocrats like Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin seem to seize the opportunity to divide, discourage and sow dissent in the democracies closest to them, in Europe.
When Belarusian Foreign Minister Makei told CNN that "Poland has violated all possible international laws and democratic values," he turned logic around by ignoring Lukashenko's autocratic practices, such as what some governments condemned as " "illegal hijacking of a commercial plane that was diverted to Minsk, and the arrest of a Belarusian opposition activist who was on board."
The cynical cry of the wolf, while deliberately ignoring their own violations, is a convenience that autocracies routinely use to cover their tracks.
At first glance, how can the EU, which defends human rights, turn its back on immigrants, let alone launch water cannons at them?
Human rights groups have criticized Poland for preventing journalists from entering the border region, and for allegedly pushing immigrants who had managed to cross the barbed wire fence back to Belarus.
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It is the good side of democracy, which values human rights and decency, that Biden and others fear autocracies will exploit.
At one point last week, the Lukashenko government proposed that Germany take in 2,000 immigrants and that Belarus take care of the rest.
According to Lukashenko's foreign minister, both his boss and Putin were pressuring Merkel to reach some kind of agreement. "It was President Putin who tried to contribute to the solution of this crisis. He had talks with Chancellor Merkel, he had talks with President Lukashenko, and as a result of these talks, phone calls between Merkel and Lukashenko were arranged."
Whatever the details of those talks, Merkel and her EU partners picked up on the ruse and refused to play.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer later said firmly: "We will not welcome refugees. We will not give in to pressure and say: 'We welcome refugees in European countries," because that would mean applying the very basis of this perfidious strategy".
It turns out that this is not "the dark side of European democracy", as Makei claims, but the EU's reality check on what it sees as Lukashenko's lies.
But will that matter to Lukashenko and Putin?
Of course not.
They thrive in a hybrid of arrogance and confusion in which doubt supersedes certainty, and tarnishing the moral purpose of democracy is a victory in itself.
Taking advantage of democracy
Although the manufactured crisis has so far failed to divide the EU, little of what has happened is a waste for the two autocrats, as it helps prop up their own illegitimate government.
For his audience, the construction of half-truths about the alleged mistreatment of the border guards and their water cannons is enough to make some believe that the other side is no better than them.
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Lukashenko is exploiting the fundamental value of democracy - compassion - by weaponizing the trauma of immigrants to turn the moral strength of the EU into vulnerability.
The real weakness of Europe, which he seems to assess, is not its physical borders, but its principles.
But the real pernicious wound of Lukashenko's wiles is inflicted at the heart of democracy itself.
To fight its assault on democracy, the EU is forced to take a firm stance and reject the 2,000 immigrants.
It is logical, but it only borders on morals.
He lowers himself to the level of Lukashenko and treats these desperate people like pawns.
It is this often complicated question that Biden wants us to explore by illuminating what democracy has at stake in the struggle ahead.
Within the European Union, the main effect of Lukashenko's machinations will be the risk of increasing the specter of immigrants at the border, even beyond the pre-existing irritating reality, a situation that has already fueled populist nationalism.
In his inaugural address, Biden used the word democracy five times in his introduction, and 11 times throughout his speech.
The word democracy was on his mind as he spoke in the place where, just two weeks earlier, the first attempted coup in the United States had taken place.
Staring at the flag-draped Washington National Esplanade, and with his words broadcast to millions of halls and offices of autocrats around the world, Biden warned: "We have learned anew that democracy is precious. Democracy is precious. fragile".
Since then, it has become even clearer that the tests for democracy are far from over, both in the United States and around the world.
Now, leaders must turn their well-meaning words into action.
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