The West Needs a New Strategy for Belarus

Robert Tyler | 26th August 2021 | Uncategorised

Belarus has been carrying out oppressive measures against its people with abandon - and without any major repercussions from the West.

A year has now passed since the highly contested elections in Belarus, which saw Lukashenko returned to power amidst allegations of corruption, voter suppression and intimidation. In the time since 9 August 2020, the regime has managed to carry out a campaign of terror against the opposition. It has arrested pro-democracy activists, snuffed out what little free press remained; and, in some of the grimmest cases, murdered opposition leaders. Not since the darkest days of the Soviet Union has Eastern Europe seen such oppressive measures carried out by a regime against its people with such abandon. But what perhaps remains most disturbing is that Lukashenko has been able to get away with his purges without any major repercussions from the West. In the last few months, he has been able to bring down a passenger jet to arrest a dissident; he has reignited the migrant crisis by importing people from Iraq and Syria; he has arrested opposition leaders across Belarus – as well as some outside...

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