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It’s like taken out A claustrophobic novel, set in Soviet times: A world-famous author on the other side of the Iron Curtain makes desperate calls: “Men in black masks are trying to break into my apartment. At the end of the street there are cars without license plates. ”
The author knows that these are not common criminals. It is the regime’s thugs themselves who have come to collect it.
But this happened on Wednesday, in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The alarmist was Svetlana Alexievitch, a Nobel Prize-winning author and leader of the opposition.
Fortunately, the world has changed since Soviet times: Alexeyevich was able to reach the world, translators and journalists. The event became world news and soon new images of the author appeared at his home, surrounded by European diplomats.
A task force in disguise had arrived to ensure that Svetlana Alexievitch did not become another opposition leader who suddenly disappeared.
And the EU has more than one crisis point in its immediate area, which complicates matters.
The ground is shaking under President Alexander Lukashenko since the grotesquely rigged presidential election in August. Large demonstrations have taken turns, usually workers loyal to the regime have gone on strike, and journalists ignored on state television grew tired and went home. Lukashenko has responded with lethal force, mass arrests and, as has been said, direct kidnappings of opposition leaders.
The EU has agreed to financial sanctions against some 30 important figures, including the Interior Minister, but nothing has been clarified. Lithuania, which actively supports the Belarusian opposition, wants to include Alexander Lukashenko. The Czech Republic has said no and says it wants to persevere while waiting for “a positive development in Belarus”.
And the EU has more than one crisis point in its immediate area, which complicates matters.
Greece is in a dangerous dispute with Turkey, which is pursuing natural gas in a part of the Mediterranean that Greece and Cyprus claim. Greece demands that the EU impose heavy sanctions on Turkey, and Cyprus threatens to halt sanctions against Belarus if the EU says no, writes Bloomberg.
After all, Putin doesn’t want his Belarusian counterpart to be toppled.
One of those who rushed to Svetlana Alexievitch’s side when she raised the alarm was with satisfaction the second man from the Swedish embassy. Sweden is on the right side here and must keep pushing for sanctions that make life really difficult for Alexander Lukashenko and his closest lackeys.
But do not think that the tyrant of Minsk falls easily. He has Vladimir Putin on his side. In the past there have been knots in the thread between Belarus and Russia, something the EU has, of course, liked: a strong man in the east leaning slightly to the west! – but when the protests did not want to stop, he went to Moscow where Lukashenko’s prayers went. And for all intents and purposes, Putin does not want his Belarusian counterpart to be overthrown by popular protests.
I could put bars on the heads of other people who are oppressed by a powerful president who cheats in elections …
