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‘Why should he give up?’ Defiant Lukashenko calls the chaos of the west

Deciding to divert a European commercial aircraft and a fighter jet and arrest the protagonist, Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko has provoked Western anger and threatened financial sanctions – and will continue in Eastern Europe.

On Wednesday, a Belarusian braver confirmed it was appropriate.

The first speech since under duress of Vilnius en route to Ryanair 4978 flight to Minsk and the arrest of blogger Roman Protasevich and his Russian friend Sofia Sapega, a 66-year-old middle-aged farmworker, warned that it was “a short time” when other foreign protesters had been arrested.

“We know you see,” he said.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for 27 years, was already a member of the international community after announcing his victory in last summer’s elections and protesting against the peaceful protests against his rule.

Tuesday, EU banned Belarus from the bloc forum and is considering sanctions that could cut key segments in the export market. With international borders closed and the skies empty, Belarus has little choice but to leave Russia, which has represented Lukashenko.

Roman Protasevich in court in 2017 to be charged with participating in an illegal protest in Kurapaty, the Belarusian memorial site for the Belarusian Stalinism © Reuters

But the closure of the plane confirms that despite international pressure, after months of banning protests, Lukashenko feels strong at home, says Maryia Rohava, a researcher at the University of Oslo.

“They feel that they can commit such atrocities without fear of the consequences, as a sign that they feel safe in Russia, in their families, and in the EU’s failure to commit to enforcing sanctions that could undermine the government,” he said.

“In the areas where he works, calculating his value was not part of the secret.”

For a while last August it seemed as if Lukashenko’s rule was about to end. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets every Sunday to demonstrate at the polls, at which factory officials who thought they were going to write political rhetoric ridiculed Lukashenko when he came to speak.

Violent police in Minsk are holding protests against Alexander Lukashenko for rigging presidential elections in August last year © Sergei gapon / AFP via Getty Pictures

Lukashenko for sure clinging to power by strengthening the control of the press, deploying police to crack down on protesters, and arresting dissidents, many of whom are said to have been tortured in prison. By winter, the weekly demonstrations were over.

Viasna, a Belarusian human rights organization, said the 9.5m country had 421 political prisoners – so many that guards in some detention centers forced them to wear yellow flags.

“The causes of the protests have not been resolved. The grievances are as serious as they were, ”said Nigel Gould-Davies, a former UK ambassador to Minsk and now head of the International Institute for Strategic Study. “It is only by now that the authorities have learned how to threaten the unpredictable manifestation of that dissatisfaction.”

Following Protasevich’s arrest, Belarusian authorities released a video of the blogger admitting that he had “corrected a number of incidents”, a crime that could land him in prison for up to 15 years in prison. Mr. Protasevich’s father told Reuters her son’s nose appears to have been broken and she believes that admission of wrongdoing would be forced.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus’s opposition leader, wrote that Protasevich’s video and similar confessions made by Sapega were “dangerous” and an attempt “[terrorise] the whole world ”.

Wednesday, in an attempt to intimidate political opponents, Belarusian officials a free play showing what is thought to be the last moments of Vitold Ashurak’s controversial life. The photo showed the fighter, who died on May 21 for unknown reasons, is alone in jail and unable to stand up, falling twice face to face.

Dmitry Stakhovsky, an 18-year-old orphan, committed suicide on Tuesday after a similar charge against Protasevich and condemned “moral coercion” from investigators to kill him, according to a televised statement.

Opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to Lithuania, is responding to what happened this week. He also accused Protasevich and Sapega of unconstitutional attempts to threaten “the whole world” © AP

“I will continue with what we have seen over the past few months. No one is stopping it, there is no reason to do so, “said Artyom Shraibman, a Minsk resident who does not live in the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Protasevich’s arrest reflects the growing interest in Lukashenko’s desire to pursue foreign opponents, Shraibman said. The Russian FSB arrested two protesters in Moscow and handed them over to the Minsk KGB in April. Later, a Belarusian security official promised to “find and clean up” the protesters in August.

The EU has refused to accept the election after Lukashenko said he had won Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to Lithuania under duress by the KGB.

French President Emmanuel Macron has summoned Tsikhanouskaya to attend the G7 summit in London next month, with the council considering criticizing Belarusian companies and oligarchs on a list written by opponents.

Hopes of hope, dashed by Russia continues to support Lukashenko, who says Western intelligence is destroying Belarus as a way to fix the “hybrid war” dress against Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin has abandoned his strong ties with Lukashenko to give Belarus billions of dollars in Russian debt and is meeting with his counterpart in Sochi on Friday.

Although he thinks Moscow is forcing Lukashenko to step down after a delayed constitutional election, the Kremlin’s push is enough to force Lukashenko to step down from the west, according to Shraibman.

Instead, EU sanctions “could anger Lukashenko and he could get worse,” Shraibman said.

“There is no way he can reduce his ideology without Russia’s participation in the project, or raise money for Russia. Because at the moment Lukashenko feels that Russia is helping him, and he is doing whatever he feels like.”


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