Veronika voted for the first time in 1994 in the elections, as a result of which Lukashenka was elected president of Belarus. He returned to voting only 26 years later, that was a year ago. He decided not to vote in the presidential elections of 2001, 2006, 2010 and 2015, as he considered them a farce in order to perpetuate the power of those who presented themselves as “dad” (father of the nation), but in fact, each time they showed themselves more and more as an authoritarian boss and a despot.
On August 9, 2020, Veronica felt that the vote was worth one more time. This was the sixth time that Lukashenko’s name was on the ballot box, but it was felt that the regime of the sole boss with a mustache imitating Stalin had finally exhausted itself. Polls recognized the possibility of electing Svetlana Tikanovskaya as a symbol of a new, democratic Belarus. Veronica voted for Svetlana.
Veronica was born in 1975 in Minsk, then 15 years ago in the Soviet Union. In August 1991, he celebrated the independence of the Republic of Belarus after the collapse of the Soviet empire. In 1994, he voted for the first time in free elections, he was elected president, and there was hope for the elected official Lukachenko. The following year, he faded into the background when the president advocated replacing the red and white flag of independence with a flag (with Portuguese colors) that restored the flag of the Soviet dictatorship. It was another sign of nostalgia for the former authoritarian regime.
Veronica now works as a history teacher and activist in a community organization affiliated with the Catholic Church and dedicated to social support. When he heard the announcement of Lukashenko’s re-election with 80% of the vote for a sixth term a year ago, he had no doubts that what they call an election had turned into an unimaginable election fraud as a result. proportions.
Many of the many people who survived the elections with hope. Soon thereafter, street demonstrations against the Lukashenka regime and the exposure of election fraud became widespread and consistent. But the police were immediately involved in harsh repression.
The week after the vote, candidate Svetlana Tikanovskaya, whom the regime agreed with only 10 percent of the vote, given the wave of arrests, opted for self-exile in neighboring Lithuania. Svetlana took over the leadership of the Belarusian opposition instead of her husband, who is a political prisoner.
Thousands of people were arrested, many of them tortured, in those days of August last year for demanding the departure of the president, who, in their opinion, has lost legitimacy.
The scale of the demonstrations and the joining of strikes in this former Soviet republic of 9.5 million residents reflected an incompatible reality, as the opposition candidate received only 10% of the vote.
Furious with civil opposition, Lukashenko began to use increasingly harsh methods of repression. He liquidated NGOs that he considered critical and harassed media outlets that did not support him. Journalists and academics have been prime targets of the repression. The imprisonment of more than 35,000 Belarusians last year was recognized as a political order. Many people chose to leave the country.
Realizing that he was being persecuted as never before in the 27 years of his presidency, Lukashenko turned to Putin for help. Throughout history, Belarus has always been in the sphere of influence of Moscow. The exception is short periods of autonomy, the last period between 91 and 94 years, when everyday life approached the model of other European countries, hotels of very famous large international groups appeared in Minsk, and hamburger and Zaras stores appeared on sale. … But the locomotive of the Belarusian economy is Russia. The Kremlin is preventing a country so geostrategically sandwiched between Russia and NATO and European Union countries such as Poland and Lithuania from getting out of its orbit.
Lukashenko turned to Putin for help, and political coverage came from Moscow in the form of “help and understanding” the dictator needed. Feeling protected, in his delirium of suppressing dissent, Lukashenko unhesitatingly ordered an act of state aerial piracy last May: he ordered Ryanair Boeing, flying from Athens to Vilnius, to Minsk to capture and arrest Roman Protasevich, a critical journalist … who flew this plane. Then Europe protested, isolated the airspace of Belarus, but that’s all.
Now, last week, two dramatic episodes within 24 hours have returned to show what awaits anyone who dares to violate the rules set by the Lukashenka regime.
First, Olympic athlete Kristina Tsimanouskaya became an international case due to the fact that she had to contact the Tokyo airport police to get out of forced repatriation. Kristina was granted political asylum in Warsaw.
A few hours later, the case of Vitaly Shishov, the organizer of the reception of Belarusian refugees in Ukraine, was found hanged in a park in Kiev. Suspicions of murder disguised as suicide, of attacking dissidents, even in exile, are very strong. Vitaly was warned that he was threatened with kidnapping or murder during an operation planned by the Belarusian special services. The case is under investigation.
Lukashenko is the last remaining political dinosaur in Europe in the spirit of the old Soviet dictatorship. He survives in power and practices increasingly harsh and unworthy repression because he is supported by Putin.
Regular condemnations by the European Union and sanctions against the dictatorship are of very little help to those who are fighting for freedom and risking freedom in Belarus. It must be a battle for all of Europe at a time when in other parts of the world, in Venezuela, Egypt, the Philippines, Myanmar, as well as in Turkey, China and Russia, an authoritarian regime that despises freedom is growing and growing. respect for the dignity of people.
All these cases are regrettable. Lukashenko on the European continent deserves top priority to be a model in the siege of dictators. The events of recent days have already prompted the United States to announce sanctions against strategic companies in the Belarusian state system. Europe is open to such decisions.
Lukashenka continues to respond threateningly to everything. This Monday, in a training exercise involving only other dictators, he challenged journalists and supporters to what was presented as a press conference, but which turned into an eight-hour rally (no mistakes, in fact, it was Lukashenko’s eight hours of verbiage. ), in which he wanted to present his version of reality: he disqualified the opposition, which was reducing an insignificant and manipulated minority from abroad, and even referred to the threat of the Third World War and argued that without his firmness, a world conflict could break out.
It remains to be seen how long Lukashenka will be able to continue raving.
Veronika wants to continue living on the outskirts of Minsk, despite the fact that she knows that every time she crosses the political border, at least to participate in a demonstration, she is at risk.
In account:
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