WEBVTT

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New Eastern Europe podcasts. These are
Belarussians who are demanding President Alexander Lukashenka to

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quit. The spark that set the
streets on fire was the election fraud on

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August ninth, twenty twenty. Despite
huge mobilization before the elections and visible support

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forced Fitlanda Tianoska. Just before the
second round of the elections, the authorities

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said that Alexander Lukashenka was supported by
over eighty percent of citizens. Belarussians took

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to the streets against the lies,
against the regime, which responded with violence.

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The letter of society and repressions against
those who did not want to fall

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into it, however, are not
something new, although twenty six years ago

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it was different. The beginnings of
the regime of Alexander Lukashenko are recalled by

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Edward Lucas, former British media correspondent
and expert on Eastern Europe. I remember

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the nineteen ninety four elections in Belarus
because I covered them as a correspondent,

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and I'm ashamed to say that I
thought that Lukashenka was rather a good thing,

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certainly compared with the previous regime of
Vacheslav Kebich who's being completely forgotten,

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and Lukashenka seemed to be a man
of the people, dynamic, keen on

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fighting corruption, and I thought that
this might be a welcome change. And

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unfortunately his autocratic and even dictatorial instincts
came to the fall and we never had

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a proper election again. The regime's
attempts to stay in power were marked by

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brutality towards the opposition and indeed disappearance
in subductions, murders. And yet over

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that period Belarus has changed very much
underneath the surface. It's become a much

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more sophisticated, internationally oriented country,
and in a way, I think Lukashenka's

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rule has created the conditions in which
people are now keen to get rid of

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him. The scale of the demonstrations
and earlier support for the opposition candidates,

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especially Svidlanda Tikalovska, was a shock
to the authorities, but also a surprise

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to many observers. At times it
was hard for Belarushian's to believe in what

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was happening. Pyotr Drotkovsky, director
of the Belarushians Center for Strategic Studies,

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talks about the range of Minsk protests
protest segment. Firstly, the protest coverture

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paths of society from students to pensioners, from traditional opponents and ending with those

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who only join the protests after the
elections, that is, people who woke

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up politically. So the scale is
very wide. Of course, this does

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not mean that let's say nearly one
hundred percent of society has been resurrected.

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Well, it can be estimated at
twenty to thirty percent, maybe thirty five

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percent of those who are actively participating
in the protest directly that is, by

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going out onto the street or indirectly
by supporting the protesters. So this is

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the first such moment. The second
moment is the incredible scale of solidarity,

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both financial and psychological, human and
other forms of solidarity. And I think

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that there is hesitation. I would
not like to call it a split,

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but hesitation inside state structures. I
also think that of the power structures.

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So the fact that Lukashenka still has
to change key positions of the power forces

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proves that the situation is not so
stable within the system system. What happened

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to explode a country that, at
least from the outside, looked like an

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oasis of stability. Yet Alexander Lukashenka
seemed to have everything under control and to

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meet the expectations of the citizens Usov
Belarussian political scientists doctor of political science,

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they changed to. In fact,
he rules for twenty six years. In

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a sense, he could fulfill the
expectations of the part of the population who

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voted for him. That is a
return to Sovietism, the initiation of eap

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integration with Russia, and as a
result in authoritarian regime was formed governments that

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were based solely on repression, perhaps
invisible to the majority, in counterfeits,

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electoral fraud, arrests and the imprisonment
of the opposition. Unfortunately, the majority

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of people, the masses did not
pay attention to it. As for Lukashenka's

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policy towards the internal opposition and this
kind of political indeference, political apathy,

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it lasted for these twenty six years, and what happened in twenty twenty was

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completely unexpected to the unexpected political electoral
outbreak, both for Belarusian society itself and

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for the authoritarian regime of Lukashenka and
the cause of this political crisis which has

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just expressed itself in the form of
these protracted protests, and indeed the terror

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by the authorities lies in several important
things. It is also worth pointing to

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a certain moment that led to a
change in orientation and social expectations and in

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the expectations of the majority. The
moment brought this turning point is associated primarily

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with the coronavirus and the second moment
with the remnants of the election campaign,

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in which, unexpectedly for the system
and society people who had been outside of

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traditional politics Victor Barbarico and Sergezski Victor
Barbarico Valero. The last straw that broke

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the camels back in Belarus was the
coronavirus pandemic. The disease was ignored,

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even ridiculed by President Lukashenko, just
as here you can hear him saying yellow

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cheese is a cure for covert nineteen. Coronavirus has become a kind of chernobyl

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for Lukashenka. Originally, as in
the European Union, countries in the world,

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and in Russia in general, the
lockdown began. Lukashenka, as we

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remember, resigned from such restrictions in
terms of restriction of people's movement, school

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closings and quarantine for enterprises. This
was absolutely not a subject in Belarus.

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Initially, in February March, Lukashenka's
policy was received quite positively, even in

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neighboring countries. Everyone was watching Lukashenka
fight the virus effectively. But as it

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became apparent that the coronavirus is a
profoundly serious disease, and when it was

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necessary to change the rhetoric in a
sense, and even maybe politics, When

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even the Belarusian society itself, which
initially supported Lukashenka in this strategy, began

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to doubt the correctness of this approach, began to show information about shortages,

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serious problems in hospital, about the
dead, and this number started to grow.

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That's when Lukashenka's rhetoric still did not
change, so he was still talking

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about the fact that the coronavirus is
a kind of corona psychosis. When society

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was starting to think in a completely
different way, and instead of changing a

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strategy and approach to the problem,
Lukashenka started to lie. So the whole

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system started to lie, to hide
data, to falsify data. People who

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died from the coronavirus, although they
had some health problems before that they were

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diagnosed that they did not die from
the coronavirus, but from heart attacks from

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diabetes. That is, the Ministry
of Health and personally Lukashenka, they simply

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began to lie to the society on
a statewide scale, not realizing that people

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began to draw information from completely different
sources. If there was still any control

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over the mass media and the Soviet
unions, the authorities in Belarus completely lost

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their monopoly on information. This is
the second problem why it happened as it

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did. At the same time,
people stops trusting the state media, they

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stopped trusting the Ministry of Health,
They stopped trusting Lakashenka and his rudeness towards

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those who died, towards those who
fought. Because these hospitals did not receive

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any material or financial support, and
it is the society that organized itself,

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showed solidarity and raised money to support
the healthcare system somehow system Hallelubak Bela Russian

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journalists. The pandemic was of course
an important point for Belarusians right, but

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also the lies that Belarusians heard from
their screens. When I traveled all over

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the country before the elections, I
also talked to people. They said that

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when they were lied to, people
were simplish. That this contributed to the

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fact that their trust in independent media, in social media, and in bloggers

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through a lot the government media itself
contributed to the fact that they truly killed

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such trust. In recent years,
the government has been putting a lot of

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emphasis on television, somehow trying to
develop television, but it has ignored social

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media a lot, ignored bloggers who
disseminated alternative, neutral, objective information.

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It is trying to do so,
so it's as if they're sort of lost.

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The government has gotten lost. Do
people ignore the state run media?

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Certainly not. I talk to people
in other regions, in the countryside,

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and very often it is the only
source of information. I think there's also

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a mechanism that maybe at work here
where people believe that not everything can be

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untrue, that the government cannot lie
a hundred percent, something must be true.

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And of course this is dangerous.
It divides the nation brade with post

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propaganda opposite the lack of trust and
state media and propaganda and a version to

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this propaganda created a completely different information
situation. People started looking for information in

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opposition or in alternative media. During
this period, telegram channels became immensely popular.

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Where people looked for information was right
there, and of course the picture

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of the situation in these alternative means
of information was completely different. People realized

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that the government was lined them.
As the system lost its monopoly on information,

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the system lost its monopoly on creation
in the world. People understood that

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Lukashenka state equals a lie. And
besides, Lukashenka, in his traditional approach,

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wanted to show that he was the
host of the situation with his bravado.

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At the same time, when the
peak of infections in Belarus was already

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there, the Eastern Orthodox churches were
not closed. People went to the church.

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It was during this period it was
Eastern Orthodox Easter, and crowds of

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people gathered in these churches, and
this increased the number of infections even more.

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The second thing that they were called
subotniks when employees of factories, state

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institutions had to forcibly take part in
cleaning in some social work and under the

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conditions grew tires. When even Russia
was on lockdown, had even closed the

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borders. And the last such blow
to yourself shot in the head was the

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organization of the parade on May ninth, twenty twenty, the day of the

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victory of a fascist Germany. Even
Moscow had to abandon this parade, which

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was the most important in that ideology, and it was the first time that

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such a revolution took place. Because
the parade was attended by a maximum of

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fifteen thousand people, and before that
up to fifteen to one hundred thousand people

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gathered there for these various celebrations,
it was already showing that something was wrong

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and the authorities Lukashenka personally did not
pay attention to less difficult politic act.

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It is in these circumstances that three
previously unknown politicians appeared. That is,

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Sergey Tihanowski, who was a blogger, simply traveled around villages interviewed simple people,

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showing them what was actually going on. He also began to be extremely

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popular as a blogger. Apart from
the fact that this is a revolution of

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novices, it is also a evolution
of bloggers. But bloggers have become in

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a sense a new political force,
in a sense, such an engine driving

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this revolution because they paid attention to
local problems, not even political ones,

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but to local unprofessionalists, the arrogance
of local dignitaries officials to ignore the problems

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of ordinary people. The attitude towards
these local dignitaries started to shift to Lukashenka

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because he is responsible for who he
will allocate, Because I will not win

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these local officials, but they are
only allocated by Lukashenka. The crisis of

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trust in these local officials also spread
to Lukashenka and destroyed such local support for

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him. Because villagers and small towns
were always on his side. They always

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voted for Lukashenka. They were never
interested in human rights or a choice of

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sorts. It was about simple things
that finally began to be articulated. The

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coronavirus was imposed on all of this. People saw that they were ignoring them.

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They were just ignoring the problems.
See how Owski was rather a speaker

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who articulated the problems of smaller communities, that is, simply the leader of

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the proletariat. Because the intellectualists kept
their distance. Suddenly Victor Barbarico appears,

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who was a banker for twenty years
and was a director for Gazprombank, one

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of the most authoritative institutions. Although
related to Russia, banking and finance in

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Belarus, Barbarico began to attract the
attention of the middle class in the middle

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nomenclatura, which means that finally,
for people of even different strata, there

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were alternatives that they did not have
because before the election process, the traditional

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opposition wanted to implement some common project
to emerge from these various broken and weakened

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political parties of the only candidate to
repeat the scenario from two thousand and six,

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but it was met with total disaster. It actually showed that neither support

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nor trust in this traditional opposition is
there, so there is no point in

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participating in the election camp. Against
this background, the appearance of Barbarica and

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Valerikala as representatives of the nomenclature saying
of the upper class was initially skeptical,

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but the appearance of these three people
unexpectedly caught attention that people were beginning to

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know the alternative in it. In
addition, the authorities initially did not use

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oppression because they saw no threat in
this so called dialogue. However, the

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organization of the campaign this dynamic led
to the electrical revolution. First, it

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was expressed in the fact that people
began to sign up in mass for Zikanowski,

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and there was such long lines.
There were not even such lines before.

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Such a wave of political activity made
it clear that the election scenario would

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be completely different than it used to
be. That Nazi Anson supply from the

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East European study of the University of
Warsaw emphasizers that in respose to the outbreak

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of social discontent, the Pularussian regime
reacted in a well known and practice manner,

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that is repression. It is worth
understanding that what is happening in Berus

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now and what has happened in August
and September, this didn't just happen in

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twenty twenty. It has been going
on for at least twenty years. I'm

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talking about repression and violence above all, because from the beginning of the twenty

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first century Lukashenka began to use all
these known methods, that is the practice

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of suppressing protests with the help of
force, plus the known disappearances of famous

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people whose bodies were not found.
This is minister Zaharenka, this is a

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journalist called Zavansky, an operator of
Russian state television. So from then on

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the state began to apply these repressions
Over these twenty years, the repression has

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taken on completely different forms. From
direct violence. We suspect the whole society

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suspects the kid in kidnapping people.
The brutal force of throwing in nive political

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prisoners is a constant element of Belarus's
internal policy and economic repressions, blocking the

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possibility of obtaining education in general.
We now observe in a nutshell what is

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happening in belarusis for twenty years,
and now everything is happening in these three

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months technicians. The Belarussian sociologist Aleena
Garsheva chose attention to the scale and universal

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nature of the repression that affects anyone
who dares to express their opposition to the

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government. Not depenty much talk belity
come in the Belarusian situation. It should

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be remembered that there have always been
repressions against politicians who oppose Lukashenka. So

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this is nothing new. It is
not an invention of twenty twenty. The

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trend of this year is that the
repression has undoubtedly become massive and universal.

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As the protest has become massive and
universal, an unprecedented number of inhabitants have

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fought the regime. What are the
repressions. First of all, repression involves

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arrests, beatings, and often torture
during detention or in arrest. Secondly,

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it is economic repression. For example, the company that supported the protests and

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strikes now has special and incredibly detailed
controls of the services. Thirdly, and

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this is a new dimension, housing
communities are harassed, those housing estates and

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buildings in which flags appeared or films
were shown. In other words, white

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red and white spirit of BIP.
And despite the brutal reaction of the authorities,

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the protests have not subsided. They
continue, they are transforming. A

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certain routine has emerged, which Depot
and writer Andre Hadanovitch talks about from Minsk

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Trai Jeveney Missions New People Maso protested
September on October or strange months, not

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only mass protests but also activities mainly
related to the districts where people live.

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That is, on Sundays, they
go out in one hundred or more,

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maybe one thousand protests every day from
Monday to Saturday. People gather in smaller

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and larger groups just near their houses
in their districts, and this is where

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miracles begin. Yesterday, stranger becomes
friends. People become friends. They start

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to treat themselves a little bit as
friends, fellow people who do important work

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together. And on the one hand
make their districts and look like a real

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Belarusian district in the evening, so
they decorate. They start with ribbons in

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white, red and white, then
symbols, face painting and daily meetings and

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meeting over tea, cookies, non
alcoholic drinks. It must be said right

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away so as not to draw attention
to it. People thought that they had

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little of these neighborhood meetings. Why
not combine it with art and education.

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And then they started inviting guests.
Zah guests come to the meetings, lecturers,

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artists, ordinary debaters, artists born
history remembered, questions about the future

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arise. Although missus Tiknovskaya is the
symbolic leader of the Opposition, I'm not

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sure she's really a contender for power. I think that the Opposition has gone

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a long way to go in terms
of articulating its demands and also in building

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itself up as a serious grassroots movement
on the lines of solidarity in Poland in

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the nineteen eighties. It's made a
very promising start. It's won the battle

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of ideas, and the enthusiasm is
extraordinary and it's very moving to watch.

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But if you actually want to defeat
a regime by sheer force of numbers,

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there's still some way to go.
The question of Bilarus's future geopolitical orientation has

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been decisively parked by the opposition.
They're not saying that this is not to

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be decided now. What they want
is a free election, the release of

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political prisoners and the removal of Lukashenka
and everything else can wait. But can

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it really wait for the first time
in a long time. The answer to

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this and other questions can be asked
of the Pilarussians themselves. In the following

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podcasts, we present various phases of
a changing society and country, and we

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mainly ask Belarussians themselves. Podcast produced
by pre Range Productions