August 17, 2020
hISTORY JUST KEEPS eNDING:
How Europe Can Help Belarus Through Its 1989-Moment (Clara Ferreira Marques
August 17, 2020, Bloomberg View)
After 26 years at the helm, Alexander Lukashenko's days are numbered. European prudence can help accelerate his demise.Protests of unprecedented scale have filled the streets of Belarus since the president claimed an implausible landslide re-election just over a week ago. A brutal crackdown, mass arrests and savage beatings followed, angering even those previously indifferent. Yet in the past few days, security forces have largely stood aside, as they did on Sunday when huge crowds again demonstrated in the capital and beyond. Strikes have been spreading too, with growing numbers of workers walking out last week even at crown jewel state enterprises such as Minsk Tractor Works, and government television.It's a turning point for the most enduringly Soviet of the former Soviet nations, and one with echos of 1989, the year that saw communist regimes toppled across Europe.
We're four months away from folks wondering why they were clutching their pearls so tightly over the decline of democracy. Always bet on the Deep State.
Posted by Orrin Judd at August 17, 2020 12:00 AM