NewsLukashenka congratulated Trump on his birthday. What did he wish?
//nashaniva.com/397571
Dmitry BorodaenkoThe band that wrote this song is still rotting in a prison in #Belarus. #Lukashenka regime keeps imprisoning, torturing, and killing people over what they did during the 2020 protests and what they kept doing to sabotage #Putin's invasion of #Ukraine. Trump invited Lukashenka and Putin into his #InjusticeLeague #PeaceBoard.
These are not historic parallels. These are battles of the same war, a war #DictatorInternational has been waging on democracy since the second fall of the #RussianEmpire.
kravietz 🦇Russians love to speak of about the “expired” (просроченный) #Zelensky but… who’s saying that?
- #Putin himself has been president illegally since at least 2012. He for a third term in office in violation of the Russian constitution, which was specially amended for this occasion to make it quasi-legal, after a largely falsified referendum.
- #Lukashenka is even better as his 2020 election was achieved by massive and well-documented electoral fraud.
Both ‘elections’ were accompanied by mass protests, some of the arrested are still jailed in #Belarus. Both ‘leaders’ prefer not to mention this part anymore, even though back then they were very verbal about ‘fifth column’.
Zelensky at the same time was elected in elections observed by the OSCE, which raised no objections, and his current extended term is 100% in accordance with the martial law imposed in response to Russian invasion on #Ukraine and in compliance with the Constitution. Unlike Putin, Zelensky needed no ‘manual tweaks’ to remain in his post - it was “only” Russian invasion that cemented him there, so if Russians are so concerned they can always end the war and let Ukraine elect a new president.
The Ukrainian TribuneChina helps Belarusian regime to produce weapons to fulfill orders from russia — BelPol
#Belarus #BelPol #China #Lukashenka #russia #sanctions #Ukraine #war #weapons
Katsiaryna Shmatsina wrote excellent analysis of what #KeithKellogg's visit to #Belarus (that led to the release of #SiarheiTsikhanouski and several other #PoliticalPrisoners) does and doesn't change for the US and EU policy towards the #Lukashenka regime:
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what-washington-wants-from-minsk
Tl;dr: not much. Lukashenka is still too dependent on Putin. Belarus is still too involved in Russia's war against Ukraine. Prisoner release is good optics for the US, but there's not much to be gained beyond that.
@heidilifeldman The #Lukashenka regime kept calling the 1999 disappearance of a major opposition politician Viktar Hanchar a "political stunt" for decades. He and other disappeared #Belarusians were never found.
@MJ @TonyStark US is now the kind of country my parents handed down to me 30 years ago when #Belarus failed to oust #Lukashenka the first time.
And yes, arresting judges was a milestone there, too, right before disappearing journalists and politicians.
I just realized that this year will mark 10 years since I stopped talking to my parents, in large part because of, well, this crap. No regrets.
Paul Hansbury just gave a good short summary of what's to expect of the upcoming "election" of the dictator #Lukashenka in #Belarus on January 26.
https://www.paulhansbury.com/post/belarus-notes-9-ballots-and-bullets
Journalists covering international affairs should take notes: while some are willing to take this attempt at self-relegitimization at face value (and omit the 30 years of violence and fraud), Hansbury opens with a reminder that "most readers will already know that Belarusians are not really getting to choose their president."
@ALoiteringFlaneur @benroyce Sadly, the target audience for this posturing is not just (or even not primarily) Belarusians. It is foreign leaders, including those in the West, who find it convenient to pretend that it is possible to pull #Lukashenka away from #Putin. This is a call for another round of negotiations over how many sanctions the democratic countries are going to lift in exchange for posturing and symbolic gestures.
Norbert_R 🦣
🐘@Blumine
Und #Orban, oder #Lukashenka... So sieht Diktatur in Europa aus. Und #vonDerLeyen , #Merz etc. klatschen Beifall. Widerwärtig!
Und #Orban, oder #Lukashenka... So sieht Diktatur in Europa aus. Und #vonDerLeyen , #Merz etc. klatschen Beifall. Widerwärtig!