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Lukashenko: Mass arrests, forced exile and… hijacking – The profile of the Belarusian president

He has been in power for 27 whole years and does not hesitate to use any means to control his opponents. This is the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, which feeds in every way the image of the “last dictator in Europe”.

He came to power in 1994 by “building” on his own measures and on the ruins of the Soviet Union his own regime with a central economy and relying on the army and police to suppress any controversy. He has made mass arrests, forced people into exile and now has a hijacking on his assets.

At 66, he can count on the support of the non-Nazis, the support of Moscow, an all-time ally, but also on a section of the population, especially the elderly, who are more afraid of disorder than repression.

But on the international stage, Lukashenko has never been so isolated as after Sunday and forcing Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk to arrest a pro-government journalist.

He ordered a MiG-29 fighter jet to intercept the Ryanair plane and direct it to Minsk. Belarusian authorities claim that they acted “legally” because of a bomb threat and that the fact that 26-year-old Roman Protasevic was on the plane was a coincidence.

The claim does not convince Westerners and dissidents. After all, the audacity of energy bears the stamp of Lukashenko.

Bald and mystical, a former director of an agricultural collective, according to the Athens News Agency, never succumbed to threats and savage verbal attacks against his critics. Let him declare that he is an authoritarian leader.

“Daddy” or maybe “daddy”?

Ignoring criticism and sanctions, promoting conspiracy theories and promoting incredible therapies against the coronavirus, methodically neutralizing any controversy, Alexander Lukashenko admits that he is determined to stay in power at any cost.

In the autumn of 2020, at a time when an unprecedented protest movement is rocking Belarus, he appears with a Kalashnikov in his hand, under heavy police protection outside his home, a few meters away from the opposition protesters.

Accompanied by his teenage son Nikolai, armed like himself and wearing bulletproof vests, he flies by helicopter over the protesters in Minsk, calling them “mice”.

“I have nothing but Belarus, I hang on to it and I hold it,” he said in November, unless it is the other Belarus, of imprisoned or exiled dissidents, of protesters, of journalists.

His supporters call him batka (dad in Belarusian), bringing back rather disturbing historical memories, and he does not hide his derogatory opinion about his female opponents, such as Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a candidate in the last presidential election against him, whom she described as “jerks”.

Belarusian potatoes and tractors

A significant portion of the population still appreciates Lukashenko’s brutal style and acknowledges that Belarus escaped the chaos that destabilized the rest of the Soviet empire in the 1990s.

He cultivates the image of the man of the people picking watermelons in the fields, of the patriot wearing a military uniform in the parades, of the athletic android man who puts on the skates to indulge in hockey.

The president also likes to charm farmers and workers with speeches glorifying Belarusian potatoes and tractors.

In Belarus, however, there is another section of the population that accuses him and his entourage of getting rich on the backs of the people and of hiding millions in Swiss banks.

On social media he is called “mustache cockroach” or “Sasha 3%”, because of his derogatory and supposed percentage of popularity.

For decades, Lukashenko has deftly moved between the European Union and Moscow, securing setbacks one after the other, playing with their geopolitical rivalries.

Between European sanctions and Russian ambitions, this time Alexander Lukashenko chose Moscow, which not only was not moved by the relentless repression of dissidents, but offered its help.

When he suppressed the protest movement that began with the questioning of another victory in a vote that is considered fraudulent, Lukashenko declared victory over the Blitzkrieg of his Western-led opponents.

Although he has shown that he is ready to do anything to prevent that time, he says modestly: “One day you will elect another Lukashenko or someone else; no matter how heroic I am, the time will come for me to leave.”

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