As Belarus Protests Freeze Over, Lukashenko’s ‘Terror’ Targets Journalists

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was on the ropes in mid-August, as tens of thousands of protesters descended on sunny Minsk to demand the resignation of the man known as “Europe’s last dictator,” and the free elections they believed they had been denied at the start of the month.Lukashenko, then 65, had been in power for 26 years, taking control of Belarus soon after it became independent from the collapsing Soviet Union. But last summer marked the most serious challenge yet to his rule, the pro-democratic opposition coalescing around challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, herself a replacement for husband Sergei Tikhanovsky, arrested 10 weeks before polling day.Protesters were brutalized in the streets and in prisons, and security forces continued a steady drumbeat of arrests and harassment against anyone suspected of involvement in the unrest. Fortified with backing from the Kremlin—President Vladimir Putin even hinted he might send Russian troops to maintain control—Lukashekno weathered the worst of the demonstrations.With more arrests, more threats, more coronavirus infections and colder weather, the protest movement has lost momentum. The opposition is longer thronging the streets of Minsk in their tens of thousands. But action continues in residential areas; on January 17 the independent BelaPAN news agency reported… Read full this story

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