Vote on Sunday will see extension of Lukashenko’s 30-year stranglehold on power
Before we look at some other events in Europe today, here’s my Guardian colleague Pjotr Sauer’s story on this Sunday’s vote:
In 2020, accusations of electoral fraud triggered months-long demonstrations, drawing hundreds of thousands of Belarusians to the streets. The authorities detained more than 35,000 people, many of whom were tortured in custody or forced to flee the country.
Since then, the Lukashenko regime, backed by Vladimir Putin – whom Minsk in turn supports in the war in Ukraine – has intensified its repression of even the smallest acts of dissent, charging critics with extremism and terrorism for actions as minor as leaving critical comments on social media or following so-called extremist Telegram channels.
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