Belarus: Alina Jantjur has lived as long as Lukashenko ruled

We are at your student residence in Gothenburg. After just over a week here, Alina Jantjur is newly in love with the city where she will spend a year.

– It is so green everywhere even though we are in the middle of the city. And yesterday I saw a deer outside the window. In Minsk, there is a lot of concrete, he says.

Another contrast it’s quiet. Before arriving in Gothenburg, he had participated in protests for several weeks both in Minsk and in his hometown of Stoŭbtsy. When he was at the center of events, he had no time for emotions. Now he cries a little every day.

– I’m worried. While in Belarus, I lived under the illusion of being able to protect my loved ones. Now it doesn’t feel like that anymore. It is also more difficult to deal with anxiety when I cannot physically participate in protests. Part of me is thinking: What am I doing for good here?

When she a year ago decided to study abroad, it was not on the map that people would rise up against “the last dictator of Europe”, as Alexander Lukashenko is called.

The fact that he wanted to leave even then was because he didn’t feel like working for the state-controlled media, he says.

– It was clear what we achieved and we did not get to write about the president. If you made a small mistake, you were penalized with a deduction from your salary. How big the deduction was depended on how bitter the bosses were.

According to Alina Jantjur, a serious mistake could be that the reporter used an untouched image of the president or wrote his caption in lowercase.

– It became absurd when our president met with the presidents of other countries and that is why his title had to be capitalized but not the others. If you make a mistake there, you can forget your salary, he says.

For Alina Jantjur, everything turned upside down during the corona pandemic. The news portal for which he worked, the Establishment of the Presidential Administration “Editorial Belarus today”, was able to direct Lukashenko’s line. The president has stated, among other things, that the virus can be cured with vodka and sauna baths.

She was skeptical about the government’s statistics on the number of infections and deaths.

– Many in small towns watch television and believe in propaganda. It should be a crime to fool people like that. I have a friend who died in crown. Our principals stayed away from the office. Still, we would write falsehoods that put people in danger. I was ashamed of what we wrote, I didn’t want to be a part of it anymore.

Alina Jantjur decided to resign as early as July after several presidential candidates who had the opportunity to challenge Lukashenko were arrested for unclear reasons. Nine people worked in her department. All but one quit their jobs over the summer, she says.

How the president has handled the corona pandemic, she believes is a contributing factor in the demonstrations becoming so large and widespread.

– Everyone was surprised by his attitude to the virus. Doctors did not get help, but ordinary people had to go together and sew masks and protective suits. The restaurants were closed but cooked for those who worked in the health sector. Many realized that the government doesn’t care and that we actually handle ourselves.

Belarus has had the same president throughout Alina Jantjur’s life. International observers only consider the first elections won by Lukashenko in 1994 to be free.

The idea that someone else could run the country is dizzying for Alina Jantjur.

– No matter how it goes, society will never be the same as before. Nations are said to get the government they deserve. After all the protests, I think we have shown that we deserve better.

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