Whatever some people might say about Saakashvili, but this dude really kicks ass! Just read what he wrote about Belarus in the International Herald Tribute. Just a small teaser:

When Belarus holds its presidential election this Sunday, it will not only represent the most important vote in Europe this year, but will also be the most critical test to date of Europe’s tolerance towards dictatorship on its own continent.

Indeed, the attention to our elections is enormous. Finally, an ordinary John Doe has learnt about this nation of 10 million inhabitants. Finally, there is a worldwide attention to our bitter events. The democratic world states its solidarity with our freedom fighters, with our civic society, awakening, rising up from a comatose REM sleep.
Unfortunately, it is not hard to predict that we have to prepare for the worst. Hardly, we will awake in a new country after all votes cast and bulletins counted. But certainly, the machine of fear is already malfunctioning. With over 50 people arrested, newspapers closed down, a presidential candidate beaten up, all the facts indicate that the regime is trembling, runs amok like a wounded grisly bear, breaking all the rules, all the norms and morals.
200,000 copies of a communist newspaper Tovarishch, with Milinkevich’s electoral program on its pages, were detained today. Kalakin, the candidate’s campaign manager, does not believe the newspaper will reach voters before the elections day. A Russian political journalist Andrei Suzdaltsev is being deported from the country.
And as for arrests, they wouldn’t stop. Some more of my friends, who actively campaigned for the single candidate of democratic forces, were detained. Among them is one of the brightest young regional leaders, Siarhiej Salash, and Milinkevich’s Vitebsk province coordinator, Christaphor Zhalapau.
Today there was a combined sitting of Milinkevich’s and Kazulin’s HQ’s. Two joint statements were issued:
1. An open letter to the law enforcement agencies, ministries, and judiciaries, in which the candidates demanded no use of force, no instigation for bloodshed, and responsibility for such actions. They also demanded for immediate release of all the political prisoners and detained members of the candidate’s teams.
2. A statement demanding an emergency session of the National Assembly to dissolve the central election commission and reschedule the presidential election for July 16 at latest. (Read more at BelaPAN)
Another important news of the day is that George Bush reported on Lukashenko’s incomes to US Congress, as required by the Belarus’ Democracy Act. Certainly, if the regime holds a dead grip on the power, the West, I assume, is supposed to react with adequate measures, as called for by President Saakashvili.

The KGB chief, Stepan Sukharenko, threatens to send to a death row the most violent participants of the forthcoming events, much feared by the regime. The state has chosen a smart method to avert the revolution – pretty simple, but very efficient – by intimidation. By propagating fear, Sukharenko certainly knows what he is doing. With most of the Milinkevich team managers behind bars, the ones left to be neutralized are eventually the people. So the chosen technique is very straightforward – keep out. It is going to be violent, we will beat crap off of the radicals’ heads. And you beware of terrorist acts, stay at home unless you want to get it.
At the same time, KGB promised that it would not arrest Milinkevich by the 19th. “His case would be investigated, and punishment would depend on severity of the events.”
I also must mention that two of my good acquaintances from Navapolatsk are arrested. Vasil Chramcou is the chairman of Usiaslau Charadziej, a cultural educational center with a vivid history, and Alaksiej Trubkin is a young activist of Belarusian Popular Front, who had already gone through a few arrests during this campaign.
The shocking countdown continues.

P.S.: Some Belarusian cartoonists have created this great Flash game, which might enlighten these gloomy days of waiting, especially if you are following this campaign from abroad.