EDWARD LUCAS: It’s time the West woke up to the fact Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko is a tyrant who makes even Vladimir Putin look tame
As Boris Johnson and the elegant figure of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya sat down for a private meeting in Downing Street yesterday, they were full of praise for each other.
The Prime Minister told the exiled Belarusian opposition leader that the British were ‘very much in support’ of her and her country’s democratic movement.
She, meanwhile, expressed gratitude that ‘one of the most powerful countries in the world is supporting Belarus’. Warm words – but empty ones.
For nothing could better symbolise the utter contempt in which Belarus’s long-reigning dictator Alexander Lukashenko holds the West – and any moves towards freedom in his country – than the fact that just hours before this warm exchange, the head of a non-profit organisation that helps Belarusians flee persecution was found dead in a park in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital.
Pictured: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko addresses his supporters gathered at Independent Square of Minsk, Belarus
When Boris Johnson (right) and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (left) sat down for a private meeting in Downing Street yesterday, they were full of praise for each other
Like something out of a John le Carré novel, activist Vitaly Shishov – who had fled Belarus last August – was found hanging from a tree after he failed to return from a jog. Initial reports say his body showed signs of beating.
Police have opened a murder investigation, but the finger of suspicion points directly to agents of the Belarusian KGB. Tellingly, the state-security service in this Russian protectorate has retained its old Soviet name – and its brutal reputation.
And all this just days after Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya fled to Tokyo’s Polish embassy after dodging an attempted kidnap, having publicly accused her coaches of negligence.
Both incidents speak of a brazen and shameless regime that knows it can act with impunity – and that is all thanks to Lukashenko himself. Against the chillingly autocratic figure of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the beefy 66-year-old ice-hockey fan, with his earthy, gaffe-prone persona, cuts an almost comic figure.
But he is no clown for those who dare to defy him. Indeed, since 1994 he has held Belarus in his ruthless grip – and in many respects is even crueller than the man in the Kremlin.
Many outsiders struggle to find this country of ten million people on the map. Destruction during World War Two means it lacks the tourist pulling-power of other European countries. Its top industry is potash mining – important in making fertiliser, but hardly a global consumer brand.
But make no mistake, Belarus poses a grave threat – and things are getting worse.
Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya (pictured middle talking with police officers at Haneda international airport in Tokyo) fled to Tokyo’s Polish embassy after dodging an attempted kidnap, having publicly accused her coaches of negligence
Vitaly Shishov – who had fled Belarus last August – was found hanging from a tree after he failed to return from a jog. Initial reports say his body showed signs of beating
Buoyed by victory in yet another rigged election last August, Lukashenko has spent the last year intensifying his crackdown on opposition, while drawing himself ever closer to neighbouring Russia. Putin props up Lukashenko with loans, propaganda and thuggery — and demands loyalty in return. But Lukashenko’s repression outstrips even Russia’s terrifying standards.
Some 35,000 people have been forcibly detained for their retaliation to last year’s election – with at least 500 political prisoners still languishing in jail suffering gruesome beatings and torture.
The last flickers of Press freedom have been snuffed out, while thousands of Lukashenko’s critics have decided to flee the country altogether. Recent events, however, show they are by no means safe even then.
Exiled dissident journalist Roman Protasevich (pictured in June) was apprehended in an act that was instantly branded an act of airborne piracy. A few days later, gruesome footage emerged of Protasevich’s stilted forced confession on state television
In May, the world looked on in horror as a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was grounded following a faked bomb warning and mid-air interception by Belarusian fighter jets.
Exiled dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was apprehended in an act that was instantly branded an act of airborne piracy. A few days later, gruesome footage emerged of Protasevich’s stilted forced confession on state television.
Individually, all these incidents are shocking. But, given the past two decades of repression, they should not come as any surprise.
Whatever words of support the PM offered Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya yesterday, the bitter truth is that she and her brave fellow exiles have no strategy to deal with the man behind the megalomaniacal regime that has blighted their homeland for more than 20 years.
And neither, it seems, do we.
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