Here’s to Belarus’s Freedom Fighters
Lukashenko’s political opponents are frequently detained, and many others flee Belarus, fearing for their lives.
On May 23, 2021, the eastern European nation of Belarus attracted international attention by forcing a Ryanair plane to land in its capital city of Minsk while flying through Belarusian airspace. What was the motivation for this command, and what are the ramifications for the freedom of Belarusians?
According to Belarusian authorities, the forced landing was due to a bomb threat from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas (which has denied issuing any such threat). The flight was traveling from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, and when it landed in Minsk, two passengers were arrested: dissident Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich (living in exile in Lithuania) and his girlfriend.1 Protasevich had already been charged with inciting mass unrest, which carries a sentence of up to fifteen years in jail, and he now faces the more serious (but unfounded) charge of engaging in terrorism.2
This is just one instance of many in which Alexander Lukashenko, who’s often called “Europe’s last dictator,” has violated the rights of Belarusians.3 The Belarusian president, who has been in power since 1994, has repeatedly been accused of rigging elections, most notably in 2006 and 2020.
Under Lukashenko’s regime, there is no freedom of the press. Journalists reporting on protests or on Lukashenko’s unjust practices are regularly exiled or jailed.4 For example, Vitaly Dubikov, a journalist for the Poland-based broadcaster Belsat, was arrested on his way to a work assignment. Once arrested, he was subjected to beatings and forced into cramped spaces with other prisoners (he reports that many were denied medical care). He was released four days later, without any charges or explanation.5
Lukashenko’s political opponents are frequently detained, and many others flee the country, fearing for their lives. For instance, opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s husband, Sergei Tikhanovskaya, left the country on that account.6 Those who protest Lukashenko’s tyrannical policies are often badly beaten by Belarusian police or prison guards; after protests in 2020, at least six people were hospitalized with injuries sustained in custody, including broken bones and electrical burns.7
Such police brutality and repression of the press is what Protasevich was fighting before his plane was grounded and he was arrested. During widespread Internet blockages around the time of the 2020 elections, he served as editor in chief of Nexta, a channel on the communication app Telegram. The channel exposes police brutality and government corruption, organizes protests, and provides citizens with information not available through government media.8 Franak Viačorka, who trained as a journalist with Protasevich and went on to become an adviser to Tikhanovskaya, explained the importance of such work: “A dictatorship tries to create noise, and these Telegram channels reveal the truth and the corrupt nature of the regime.”9 When asked about Nexta, Protasevich explained that the group consisted of “Belarusians who want to return home and live in a free country without dictatorship,” a country where there are “no political prisoners and fundamental violations of human rights.”10
Lukashenko’s policies have throttled Belarus’s economy. Belarus was part of the Soviet Union, but when socialism there failed to bring about its promised prosperity and the USSR fell, many former Soviet states, such as Estonia, Poland, and Latvia, began enacting free-market reforms. But Belarus, under Lukashenko’s regime, adopted what he absurdly calls “market socialism”—a contradiction in terms suggesting that a market, in which people voluntarily trade, can be combined with socialism, a system in which the government controls production and citizens are forced to act against their judgment. What Belarus actually has is a variation of socialism in which most means of production are owned by the state, and the government permits citizens to produce and trade in some cases and to some extent. In Belarus, 80 percent of the industry is state-owned, and state-owned companies account for about 75 percent of the nation’s GDP.11 The contrast between Belarus’s economy and those of neighboring countries is stark: Adjusted for inflation, Belarus’s GDP per capita increased by only $4,060 from 1990 to 2017, whereas Poland’s has increased by $18,943 in the same time. The GDP per capita of Estonia has increased similarly.12
Belarusians have been protesting against Lukashenko for decades. Specific catalysts have included election fraud, runaway inflation, and a tax on the unemployed.13 Recently, protesters have declared that their top demands are Lukashenko’s resignation, free and fair elections, and the release of political prisoners (human rights groups estimate there were at least 250 in February 2021).14 In the words of one Belarusian factory worker, “We demand free elections. We demand a change of power, we demand freedom and democracy and peace in our homes.”15 The violence employed to end protests, which have been largely peaceful and involved little property damage, has naturally led to more protesting.
The fraudulent elections and forced landing of the Ryanair flight have sparked an international backlash. The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada have enacted coordinated sanctions against Belarus, citing their “deep concern regarding the Lukashenko regime’s continuing attacks on human rights, fundamental freedoms, and international law.”16 The United States has also enacted sanctions against key officials in the Belarusian government. These nations are morally right to condemn the Lukashenko administration for its horrific rights violations.
The Belarusian protesters who have fought so bravely for their liberty—in many cases from exile, as in the case of Protasevich—deserve recognition and support.
(If you’d like to donate to a charity that works to free protesters, pays protesters’ fines, and financially helps independent journalists and those who have been injured, detained, or arbitrarily fired, consider Belarus Solidarity.)