Lukashenko: Ryanair plane diversion is legal 4:04
(CNN Spanish) -
In the middle of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanovskaya defected to Poland due to fear of being jailed when she returned to Belarus for her criticism of the government of Alexander Lukashenko.
Activist Vitaly Shishov, who led an organization to help Belarusian refugees (Belarusian House in Ukraine) from Ukraine, was found hanged in a park in Kiev on 3 August.
His death has generated a wave of speculation and the Ukrainian police have launched an investigation into the possibility that the death was a murder disguised as a suicide.
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The last dictator of Europe
In June, opposition activist Steffan Latypov slit his throat during a court hearing in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where he was accused of organizing protests.
Survived the wound
And a month earlier, dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was arrested along with Sofia Sapega after the Belarusian authorities forced Ryanair flight 4978, where it was flying in the direction of Vilnius, Lithuania, to land in Minsk, in which the airline has denounced as a "state kidnapping".
Lukashenko: Ryanair plane diversion is legal 4:04
What exactly is happening in Belarus?
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Since the disputed presidential elections held on August 9, 2020, in which Lukashenko was reelected with more than 80% of the votes, the eyes of the world have been on this former Soviet republic that has been ruled by the same person since 1994 and where the repression of opponents grows.
Protests across the country
The elections kicked off a wave of protests across the country, leading to the arrest of thousands of people, and a wave of repression of dissidents that is still continuing.
Last week CNN reported on the possible construction of a detention center for dissidents in Novokolosovo, on the outskirts of Minsk, according to complaints from activists.
A missile warehouse was in operation at the site in Soviet times, and a video appears to show that the government has been renovating the site.
The Belarusian state broadcaster ONT reacted to the report by showing drone images of the site in Novokolosovo and claiming that it is a storage base for military equipment of the Belarusian Department of Air Defense.
Protesters hug policemen in Belarus 0:58
Lukashenko, who rejects that there is repression in Belarus, has also denied that it is a detention center.
Exiles and sanctions
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, wife of blogger and candidate Serguei Tijanovski - arrested in May 2020 - and turned leader of the Belarusian opposition, faced Lukashenko in the presidential elections and obtained 7% of the votes, according to official data.
She then had to flee Belarus in August and is in exile in Lithuania.
The United States, the European Union, Canada and the United Kingdom have ignored the results of the elections and imposed sanctions on the country due to the "continuous suppression of democracy and human rights" in the country.
Lukashenko, who has been in power for 27 years by overriding any kind of opposition, has been described as the "last dictator in Europe".
"There was no repression," says Lukashenko
At a press conference on Monday, one year after the controversial 2020 elections, Lukashenko, 66, denied that there is repression in Belarus and accused the United States of conspiring against the country.
The European Union prepares sanctions against Belarus 3:50
"There was no repression on my part, no. I have accepted the rules of the game of those bandits who, under the direction of you, the American special services, acted against us, a sovereign and independent state," Lukashenko said in response to a question from CNN. .
The Belarusian leader also charged the United States and accused the country of living in "anarchy" after "trampling" the "legitimately elected" president, referring to Donald Trump and the invasion of the Capitol that occurred on January 6, when followers of the Republican defeated in the 2020 elections, they entered the Congress building.
"How many people did they lock up after the events of Congress? They stomped on the legitimately elected president, they got him out of the media, out of CNN, too. Was it legal? You voted by mail, you threw ballots where there were votes for Trump. Are you creating anarchy in many parts of the world and talking to me about repression? "Lukashenko told CNN.
Former Soviet republic with one foot in the past
Belarus, formerly known as Belarus and with a population of almost 10 million people, gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and Lukashenko was elected as its first president in 1994, replacing Prime Minister Viacheslav Kebich.
Belarus would be reforming prison camp 3:41
But unlike Russia, which jumped into a capitalism of billionaires and oligarchs after the turbulent 1990s, or Ukraine that has tried to get closer to Europe in the midst of revolutions and civil war and maintains tense relations with Moscow, Belarus has become kept on one foot even in the Soviet past.
Lukashenko, a former instructor of ideology in the Soviet Army and later manager of a collective farm, was the only member of the Belarusian Parliament who in 1991 voted against the treaty for the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in a speech after winning the controversial elections in 2020 (Credit: SIARHEI LESKIEC / AFP via Getty Images)
Since coming to power 27 years ago, he restored the Belarusian flag used in Soviet times, maintained the KGB intelligence agency (which the other republics that emerged from the USSR dissolved) and governs based on state regulation and repression of dissent.
He also regretted the withdrawal of nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus by the USSR, calling it a "gross error but a crime", and is a strong critic of the presence of NATO in the Baltic countries, its neighbors.
His controversial policies have also won him support among a sector of the population and a good relationship with the government of Vladimir Putin in Russia, his gigantic eastern neighbor.
"Recent events show us that we need to stay close to our older brother and cooperate closely on all matters, including economic ones," Lukashenko said in September 2020, after the elections and protests, and after meeting with Putin in Sochi. .