In 2004 Belarus's autocratic president Alexander Lukashenko closed the non-state European Humanities University in the capital Minsk. It was able to reopen in the Lithaniuan capital Vilnius.In Belarus, the private university was financed by tuition fees and foreign donations. It was considered a model for eastern Europe, and recruited instructors from around the world. But Lukaschenko felt the university was not sufficiently allied with the state and closed it, despite considerable protest. Many students at the EHU in Vilnius are from Belarus and return home upon graduation, bringing with them ideas about democracy and freedom.