A View Inside the Horrors in Belarus

A landlocked Eastern European nation sharing borders with Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland, Belarus never had much of a national identity. The Slavic territory was frequently carved up before falling under the wing of the Soviet Union. Since independence in 1991, it has cultivated a national identity through the Belarusian language, but its political culture has long been wary of overt nationalism … until recently.

2. Famous Faces

The country’s sons and daughters turn up in surprising places. Of Israel’s 10 presidents, three were born in Belarus: Chaim Weizmann, Zalman Shazar and Shimon Peres. So was famed avant-garde artist Marc Chagall. And several of America’s biggest names are of Belarusian descent, including billionaire Michael Bloomberg, presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and designer Ralph Lauren.

In those wild post-Soviet days, Lukashenko ran an outsider campaign as a military vet and anti-corruption reformer who had climbed the political ladder. He won the presidency in 1994 and never looked back, steadily expanding his power over Parliament, the press and other institutions. Prominent electoral opponents have been jailed. But for many Belarusians, Lukashenko represented stability and strength in the face of the Russian bear and Ukrainian chaos.

4. … But for How Long?

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic struggles, jailing his opponents didn’t work this time. A trio of daring women, including Tikhanovskaya, drew massive rallies and public support. Yet once the votes were “counted,” Lukashenko said he won 80 percent of the vote. Cue the mass demonstrations and a brutal crackdown that’s resulted in thousands of arrests. Click here for some harrowing true stories, and be sure to read the firsthand account of American journalist Dan Peleschuk. Yesterday, Lukashenko offered an olive branch of sorts, saying he’d be willing to step down following a constitutional referendum, but not under pressure from the street protests. “Until you’ve killed me there won’t be any new elections,” he said.

5. Russia’s Role

Over the weekend, Lukashenko spoke to Putin by phone and said he’d received assurances that Russia would help him quash street protests … though the Kremlin didn’t quite put it the same way. The two leaders have had an uneasy relationship, but Putin would not want to see his buffer between Russia and the EU blurred by a new, free election in Belarus. Meanwhile, both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have called Putin to urge him to stay out.

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Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a former English teacher and translator with dimpled cheeks and a reluctant smile, stepped up to become the unlikely opposition leader after her pro-democracy activist husband was jailed. She was joined by two other women tied to jailed leaders, Veronika Tsepkalo and Maria Kolesnikova. The trio announced their decision with a photo shoot: Tikhanovskaya appeared with raised arm and clenched fist, flanked by Tsepkalo flashing a “V” for victory sign and Kolesnikova forming a heart with her hands. The photo is now emblazoned on everything from T-shirts to balloons.

2. Protest Flag

The white-and-red flag you see in photos of the street demonstrations stems from the country’s brief fling with independence in 1918. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Belarusians were swept up in revolutionary fervor and declared their own state. But the Belarusian People’s Republic lasted less than a year, as the area was once again carved up in the Polish-Soviet war. Still, the brief government stayed vocal in exile, making the white-and-red flag a symbol of opposition to the Soviet-turned-Lukashenko order.

3. On the Ground

After the vote, Tikhanovskaya, who had already sent her children abroad to keep them safe, departed to Lithuania for protection. But she continues to call for a transitional government and says she should be put in charge because she rightfully won. That leaves the street theater to others, like Sergei Dylevsky, who led a workers strike at the Minsk tractor plant. Today, workers at dozens of state enterprises have joined the fast-spreading strikes.

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Until five days ago, Mikita Mikado was most known in Belarus as a successful member of the diaspora — an internet entrepreneur who headed to the United States and built a successful Silicon Valley startup called PandaDoc, a electronic document competitor to DocuSign. But now he’s a key activist from afar who’s created a fund to pay and retire the debts of Belarusian police officers who want to quit rather than crack down on peaceful protesters but can’t afford to.

2. The Power of Video

Another key figure is Stepan Putilo, 22, who launched Nexta five years ago as a YouTube and Telegram channel to post funny videos. Now it has become a crucial nexus of citizen journalism, with people inside the country — Putilo moved to Poland a few years ago — posting what they see. The information is unverified, but with 2.1 million subscribers, Nexta has opened a window into a country where the internet has been cut off.

Belarus native and OZY Head of Finance Stanislav Zmachynski writes that “my heart hurts, and my soul is tired.” He’s been compiling the stories of the abused to share with the wider world while being transfixed by the enormous protests. “The popular myth that Belarusians simply aren’t strong enough to stand up for themselves has been debunked.”

“My husband … ran to help his friends, who were surrounded. He was hit in the chest by a stun grenade. The damage was so severe that he needed immediate surgeries to keep him alive. … And all he wanted was justice.”

“I’m not a medical doctor and therefore not able to formally diagnose conditions, but when I was detained I saw people losing consciousness and not helped in time.”

“[The police] beat people, behaved like animals and at some points it seemed that they were actually having fun: They laughed when a girl was dragged by her hair and they also laughed as they beat people with clubs.”

“Three days at Akrestina. A cell for three with 17 people in it. We were begging for water and fresh air. Through a tiny window, I saw people stripped naked in the courtyard. Most beatings were taking place in the middle of the night.”

1. Trump vs. Biden

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that he’s consulting with the European Union, and President Donald Trump says the Belarus chaos is a “terrible situation.” But that’s not exactly a hard-charging statement from a president who’s been pretty friendly with the world’s autocrats, from Turkey to Saudi Arabia to Russia. Democratic challenger Joe Biden, meanwhile, condemned the “electoral fraud” and called for the immediate release of political prisoners.

2. Europe vs. Russia

The EU is hitting top Belarusian officials with fresh economic sanctions, and all 27 heads of state are calling an extraordinary video conference on Wednesday to discuss further actions about the ugliness on their doorstep. The main issue is how to counter Russia, which appears to be weighing whether to move in to protect Lukashenko — with the dictator pressing the Kremlin for assistance against the so-called foreign usurpers in his streets.

Former CIA Deputy Director and OZY columnist John McLaughlin says the West should care about Belarus because Putin does: “Belarus is like a mirror of Russia, and when there are large-scale protests in Belarus, Putin has to worry because it could encourage more Russians to do the same.” The last thing the EU wants, he adds, is a "situation in which all this chaos permits Putin to become the puppet master or to install his own figurehead in Belarus.”

McLaughlin doesn’t express a great deal of confidence that Europe’s last dictator will fall. “If hundreds of thousands of people get in the streets and won’t go home, it becomes harder and harder for a dictator to hold on. So it’s conceivable that Lukashenko could be pushed over, but I think it’s doubtful because he seems prepared to use his security forces in brutal ways, which usually turns out to be effective in the absence of strong, unified leadership in a protest movement.“