Belarus

[Jaycey]

With Moscow closing in is luck finally running out for Belarusian ‘dictator’ Alexander Lukashenko?



"Some 25 years ago, Alexander Lukashenko was elected as president in the first ever democratic elections in Belarus. He was 39. Since then, there have been no further such elections, only clampdowns, protests, tweaked constitutions, alleged assassinations and the founding of an authoritarian system described as the last dictatorship of Europe.

But over the years, the former collective farm director, now 65, has excelled as a wily tactician and survivor. Swinging from one seemingly existential crisis to the next, Mr Lukashenko has always found a way to emerge from negotiations unscathed and emboldened.

He has balanced between Russia and Europe; joined a “union” state but refused to host Russian military bases nor recognise Crimea; benefitted from massive oil and gas preferences amounting to tens of billions of pounds from Moscow but negotiated a separate trade partnership with China.

Read on … https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-alexander-lukashenko-president-a9256451.html

With all eyes on Brexit and convid-19 Belarus hasn’t made headlines in the West.

But in Ukraine its front page every day – is Putin going to intervene as he did in Ukraine after Maidan?

No black & white here - it’s complicated!

 

[Jaycey]

What’s going on in Belarus?

The eastern European country of Belarus has been plunged into chaos following a highly controversial election in which President Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory despite widespread allegations of electoral fraud.

Riots broke out in the capital Minsk on Sunday night after the country’s election commission earlier announced that Lukashenko, who has run the country since 1994, won an improbable 80% of the vote, extending his authoritarian 26-year rule for another five years.

Police in the capital responded to protesters with violence, says the BBC, as eyewitnesses claimed authorities “used stun grenades and fired rubber bullets into the crowd” - reports that have drawn harsh criticism from international observers.

https://www.theweek.co.uk/107760/wh...letter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter




Allegations of ‘widespread torture’ from Belarus protesters

Several people who were arrested during protests in Belarus this week say that the country’s security forces beat, tortured and humiliated them while in custody. Thousands of people were arrested during unrest in the former Soviet republic since its disputed presidential election on Sunday. Amnesty International said the accounts of many of those arrested suggested “widespread torture”.

 

[Jaycey]

"The first chain of women appeared on Wednesday: a few hundred brave souls, dressed in white and holding aloft flowers, in a quietly powerful response to the gruesome violence inflicted on thousands of Belarusians over the previous days.

By the next afternoon, columns of flower-waving women were everywhere, parading along the broad avenues of central Minsk smiling, laughing and resolutely demanding political change.

“We are here to show solidarity with all our men who were beaten up and abused,” said Tatyana, a 31-year-old waitress who was at the very front of a column of about 1,000 women holding flowers – one of many such groups walking through the centre of Minsk. She and her friend were holding a white flag, which she said was a sign of their desire for no more violence...

More ... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...tm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email

 

[Jaycey]

Kyivans take to the streets to support Belarusian protesters



Belarusian diaspora members and Ukrainian activists wave a flag with the Pahonia, an unofficial Belarusian coat of arms, during a rally in support of the Belarusian protests against the results of the Aug. 9 presidential election in Belarus in downtown Kyiv on Aug. 16, 2020...

https://www.kyivpost.com/multimedia...reets-to-support-belarusian-protesters-photos

LATEST!

We've just heard that Russian military, tanks and heavy weapons have crossed into Belarus.

​

 

[IbrahimAbi]

There seems no limit to how low they will sink. Russian style tactics here.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...snikova-snatched-from-street-in-minsk-reports

 

[Jaycey]

And not only Kolesnikova - seems most of her staff and the entire press team have disappeared.



Protests against strongman Lukashenko intensify as 100,000 take to the streets of Minsk following disputed re-election.

Lukashenko has invited Russian military into the country and is looking to reunite with the Russian Federation.

All rather close to home for comfort.

Wattamess

 

[Kanga]

https://news.google.com/articles/CA...Aowl6p7MN-zCTDZ4PsF?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en


So where is she and who took her?

 

[IbrahimAbi]

It is getting so little press coverage.

 

[Kanga]

It is getting so little press coverage.

Depends where you look. There is international coverage from USA and across the world.

https://news.google.com/articles/CA...Aowl6p7MN-zCTDZ4PsF?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en

https://news.google.com/articles/CB...LWluLWJlbGFydXPSAQA?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en

https://news.google.com/articles/CB...yeS0xMjA2NjQyMtIBAA?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en

https://news.google.com/articles/CB...WVzL3AwOHFzazR40gEA?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en

https://news.google.com/articles/CA...ocv1CjCSptoCMI29pgU?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en

 

[Jaycey]

It is getting so little press coverage.

It’s going on in our backyard and there’s talk of little else – Covid has taken a poor second place.

 

[IbrahimAbi]

Depends where you look. There is international coverage from USA and across the world.

https://news.google.com/articles/CA...Aowl6p7MN-zCTDZ4PsF?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en

https://news.google.com/articles/CB...LWluLWJlbGFydXPSAQA?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en

https://news.google.com/articles/CB...yeS0xMjA2NjQyMtIBAA?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en

https://news.google.com/articles/CB...WVzL3AwOHFzazR40gEA?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en

https://news.google.com/articles/CA...ocv1CjCSptoCMI29pgU?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en

I must admit I do not 'do' google

 

[Jaycey]

"I'm Horrified By What Is Happening in Belarus"

Literature Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich is currently in Berlin receiving medical treatment. In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, she spoke about the protests in her homeland of Belarus, the horrors of the Lukashenko regime and how the international community can help.

Since summer, thousands of demonstrators have been gathering regularly in the Belarusian capital for peaceful protests against the country's autocratic president, Alexander Lukashenko. Ahead of the sham election in August, he locked up important opposition politicians, and afterward, the European Union and the United States accused the government in Minsk of perpetrating widespread election fraud and levied sanctions against the regime.

Alexievich, 72, is deeply worried about her country's future. Every morning, she says, she receives emails that cause her to break down in tears. She shows a few to DER SPIEGEL. They include shocking images of crushed and mutilated hands and bodies covered in bloody open wounds. They are photos of tortured prisoners from the jails of Belarus...

https://www.spiegel.de/internationa..._1jtzCCtmxpVo9GAZr2b4X8GquyeAc9&nlid=bfjpqhxz

 

[Kanga]

I must admit I do not 'do' google

Not sure what you mean by that. Google offers a news coverage service which simply provides stories from individual sources, like the beeb, sky, etc, and all the newspapers, so each of the links above go directly to a paper, for example the first one is the Guardian, 2nd BBC, 3rd Sky. The 5th is a CNN video of students being beaten up in Belarus.

If you use google as a search engine there's an automatic 3 x 3 set of tiles for quick reference, I only use the news and a map if needed, but they're quite useful.
The news can be set to individual countries and there's a a selection of subjects too, like sport, technology, business, etc.It's not chat rubbish.

 

[IbrahimAbi]

I am just wary of services that can be invasive, like the 'quiz; features on FB that want to compare you to a sillybrity. The data that people add may just get stored and used or sold again. As for Alexa why would I pay to put a spy in my house? Who needs a fridge linked to wi fi?

 

[Kanga]

I am just wary of services that can be invasive, like the 'quiz; features on FB that want to compare you to a sillybrity. The data that people add may just get stored and used or sold again. As for Alexa why would I pay to put a spy in my house? Who needs a fridge linked to wi fi?

Who said anything about alexa? I agree and wouldn't touch it with anyone's bargepole! It's not compulsory!
This is just a news feed. Take a look. I'm not recommending it , just giving you the facts on the origin of my references.
I hate, loath, and detest fb, only went on it this year after being harangued for ages by friends who couldn't phone free from other parts of the world, and that's all I use it for apart from more contact with family. Like you, I'm very wary of putting out any personal info.

 

[Jaycey]

Belarus’s Optimistic Protesters and Putin’s Intentions

"Four months after the start of mass protests in Belarus, a new survey shows that Belarusians are optimistic they will achieve regime change.

The EU must make sure it’s ready for the transition when it comes...

More ... https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategic...HaXRhc2piTjR6WVRRYjc5b2doQk1QMk1vTlVTYWwydyJ9