BELARUS
Quixote’s Girlfriends
There is little doubt that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will win reelection on Aug. 9. Often called the last totalitarian in Europe, he has led his country, a former Soviet republic, for more than 25 years with an iron grip over the economy and its political and legal systems. No one seriously expects the ballot under his corrupt rule to register anything but a resounding victory for the incumbent.
Yet he appears to be taking measures to shore up his rule anyway.
Belarussian authorities recently detained 33 alleged Russian mercenaries who Lukashenko said were among a group of 200 operatives seeking to disrupt the election. The mercenaries were disguised as tourists. The move appeared to substantiate Lukashenko’s frequent assertions that foreign interlopers stir up public discontent for his administration, the New York Times wrote, even as others say the president is desperate for a distraction.
The alleged fighters were employees of the Wagner Group, a firm of mercenaries linked to associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The announcement sent a chill throughout already cold relations between Belarus and Russia as Lukashenko has sought to be more independent of Moscow while Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought greater integration (read: Russia absorbs Belarus).
Diplomats at the Kremlin said the men might have been private contractors traveling to a third country but were conducting no security business in Belarus, reported Reuters. The diplomats said Lukashenko appeared to be stoking “unnecessarily negative emotions” to whip up support before an election.
The explanation didn’t satisfy Lukashenko. “It is clear they need to justify their dirty intentions in some manner,” he said at a cabinet meeting, according to Belta, a state-owned news agency.
But Russian agents were probably not why thousands of Belarussians lined up for hours in recent weeks to sign up as opposition candidates to challenge Lukashenko. Economic stagnation, disregard for the coronavirus and repression of political dissent were among their motivations, Foreign Policy magazine explained.
Three figures have arisen among those to challenge the president: English teacher and “mother” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, former banker Viktor Babariko and former ambassador to the US, Valery Tsepkalo.
Tikhanovskaya’s husband, popular vlogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, wanted to run. After labeling the president “a cockroach” to be crushed with a slipper – and driving around with a giant slipper on his roof – he was charged with attending illegal rallies (where protestors waved slippers), or “the organization and preparation of actions that severely violated public order,” according to the Ukraine-based Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
Tikhanovskaya decided to run after her husband was jailed in May.
“I don’t need power, but my husband is behind bars,” Tikhanovskaya told a campaign rally in the capital of Minsk Thursday attended by tens of thousands of supporters. “I’ve had to hide my children. I’m tired of putting up with it. I’m tired of being silent. I’m tired of being afraid.”
Still, the BBC reported that the Belarus Investigative Committee of the government is also investigating possible links between the Russian suspects and Tikhanovsky, whose blog is called, A Country To Live In.
Meanwhile, authorities charged Babariko with embezzlement and fraud after arresting him and a cadre of other opposition figures, Euronews wrote. And Tsepkalo lives in self-exile in Russia. He left Belarus after government agents went to his children’s school and suggested they might take custody of them, Reuters reported.
Tsepkalo’s wife and a female representative of Babariko’s campaign stump with Tikhanovskaya, calling themselves the “fighting girlfriends,” Radio Free Europe wrote.
Some might call them quixotic. Most would call them brave.
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