Jailed for waving flowers in the street or holding tea parties: Life in the newly totalitarian state

Jailed for waving flowers in the street or holding tea parties: Life in the newly totalitarian state of Belarus

Nataliya Vasilyeva
Tue, April 20, 2021, 12:17 PM

Lilia Suboch startles every time her doorbell rings. Her mother, sister, and brother have all been jailed for minor infractions, and her home of the outskirts of Minsk was raided two days earlier, leaving her terrified she will be next.

Eight months after a popular uprising nearly toppled Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president of 26 years, authorities are rounding up hundreds of people and slapping them with short prison sentences for the most minor infractions, sowing fear in a country in the centre of Europe that is quickly turning into a totalitarian state.

Mrs Suboch’s relatives are all being kept at the same infamous detention centre. Her sister is serving 25 days, her mother five and brother six days in custody.

... https://news.yahoo.com/jailed-waving-flowers-street-holding-171722029.html​

No doubt Putin is anxious indeed to save his puppet in Belarus and prevent another Maidan. However, trying to repress Belarus militarily would easily overextend his conscript army and frail economy. What to do, what to do?

 

I think I want to move to a cave. Do you think I can get Amazon deliveries in the middle of nowhere?

This is craziness.

 

After-effects of the USSR, unfortunately. It would have helped a lot if Putin had let it die instead of trying to resurrect it. Now we have this upstart USSR-wannabe regime in Russia trying to reestablish regional dominance.

More from the article:

Maxim Bogretsov is a rare opposition figure still working in Minsk.

The 48-year-old IT executive who moved back home last summer after living in the U.S. for twenty years, is confident about an inevitable regime change if not in the short term.

“We’re in a stalemate: authorities are facing a giant hole in their budget, a massive brain drain and pretend that everything is okay,” Mr Bogretsov says.

“We have the critical mass of a new generation of people who won’t accept the idea of living in Stalin’s 1930s.”​

Not good news for Putin. He can't have what he wants when the people don't want it and are pushed to fight back to stop it in response to the kind of election-rigging and heavy-handed tactics we're seeing in Belarus now. Getting bogged down militarily would not be good for him domestically, either, especially due to the economic situation and how it would no doubt get worse under new sanctions that would surely come.

 

I thought you supported a bigger, more powerful government?

 

Weak.

 

So you agree that government should never be trusted with more power?

 

They will deliver wherever there is an address. A campsite or cave wouldn't likely have an address. But I hear you. It sure would be nice to go back 1/2 a century to a better time.

 

Its just different cultural norms. C'mon man!

 

Is this comparable to the beating given by US Capitol Police a few years back when people were trying to deliver food and water to the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington that had been besieged by the Trump administration?

 

This is no different anywhere in the world at the moment. Hosting tea parties is literally illegal at the moment in much of the world.

 

In America you can be murdered for having an air freshener tied to your rear view mirror in your car.

 

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This "news" article is a typical example of propaganda to "demonize the enemy" before a war.

In other words, it appears demented war-mongers may be serious about getting the USA involved in a war with Russia.

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Do you ever tire of being wrong about everything?

 

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Next up... Lukashenko will be throwing babies out of incubators.

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Democrat voters seem to believe that Democrat politicians are not statists; the Democrat voters are sadly mistaken.

 

When I saw the title I thought it was a story about COVID restrictions in CA.

 

ME TOO!

When I first read the headline my first thought was all the many arrests across the USA and the world for violating draconian Covid restrictions !!

Here in Dallas a brave woman was arrested for opening the doors of her beauty parlor during a Covid lockdown. She became very vocal against draconian Covid restrictions and her arrest. She became a famous icon, a HEROINE of the people!

Ironically, HERO Lukashenko did not impose a draconian national lock down in Belarus !!!

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This is interesting...


Belarus leader to amend emergency power transfer to empower son - Viktor Lukashenko

24 Apr 2021


Alexander Lukashenko to change law so that national security council, where his son plays prominent role, assumes power in event of a president’s death while in office.

...

“I will sign a decree about how the power in Belarus will be set up. If the president is shot, the next day the security council will get the power,” he said.

Many observers have suggested that Lukashenko, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1994, aims to establish a political dynasty, although he denies this.

The president himself is the head of the national security council, but his eldest son, Viktor Lukashenko, also has a seat and is regarded as its informal leader.

...

Lukashenko travelled to Moscow on Thursday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.


more at link

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021...amend-emergency-power-transfer-to-empower-son

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What a sad state of affairs.

 

Wow, took til post #9 before mention of the Orangeman. That’s almost a record here.

 

Probably. I live in the boonies and get regular Amazon deliveries. I think you would need an address for a cave as well as truck access to it in order insure regular Amazon deliveries.

 

Orangeman probably would have done something similar if he had gotten a second term -- found a way to transfer power to one of his children or some other loyalist rather than keep our democracy intact and allow himself to be out of power without protection from the law in the highest of places.

 

WT.?

 

You're funny! I would say let's worry about our own totalitarian state, before looking at others. Unless of course you want it here but not there for some political reason or other.

Makes one wonder, doesn't it?


Sure does!

 

I do worry about efforts to dismantle our democracy. The damned RINOs seem to feel it's hunky dory to enact legislation that would allow a partisan state legislature to overturn elections for no good reason on a simple majority vote. Believe me, I haven't stopped being concerned about it.