Dozens of people demand release of the presidential candidate Alexander Kazulin by setting up pickets in different parts of Minsk. The politician was arrested on 25 March during dispersal of the oppositional demonstration. On 30 March, he was preferred charges on two articles of the Criminal Code. Kazulin may be sentenced up to six years in prison.
Meanwhile, another opposition politician, Mikhail Marynich, was freed before deadline. In prison, his health critically deteriorated, and he said to RFE\RL that the regime had turned him into a crip. The ex-minister and ambassador had been considered as a potential presidential candidate from the opposition. Already last year, he was eligible for pre-term release , but according to his relatives there had been an order from high authorities not to free him before the elections.

The banner reads, “Free Kazulin.” The picture is taken from Kazulin’s website.

A short period of rehabilitation and refreshment after the violent March 25 is gradually coming to the end, as the Belarusian opposition is preparing for its next major street rally – a traditional Chernobyl March scheduled for April 26. The success or failure of this action will show whether the society has revived from fear. Anatol Labedzka said on RFE\RL that, if numbers would amount to dozens of thousands, the protest could be considered efficacious.
According to Milinkevich’s website, BNF Party jointly with VoliaMusic are releasing a musical disk “Chernobyl Winds.” The CD will be distributed via subscription. You can suggest your own title for the disk. Your contacts (e-mail, phone number, address) should be sent to czarnobyl2006@tut.by. The most active participants will be the first to receive the disk.
And the youth wing of BNF is preparing a booklet about Chernobyl disaster.

While Belarusian opposition supporters utter their dissatisfaction with mild sanctions against Lukashenka, the Washington Post has stepped even further and accused EU leadership of double standards for dictators:

Even as Europe’s policymakers were stoking their outrage over Belarus’s tyrant, they were quietly preparing to approve a trade agreement with Central Asia’s Turkmenistan — home to Saparmurad Niyazov, or Turkmenbashi the Great, a ruler whose absolute power, cult of personality and repression of his people make Mr. Lukashenko look, well, Small.

Had Belarus possessed any valuable natural resources, maybe our leader would’ve been excused and welcomed in Brussels. I don’t know. But with all due respect, the current sanctions do not offer any leverage to democratization of Belarus. They look as a symbolic gesture, and not a real response.
On the other hand, this question is always difficult – what should be done? As far as I can see, consultations continue and the discourse Belarus is still open.

I’ve just re-watched “Schindler’s List.” What a movie! It is definitely on my personal list of the top 5 best films ever made. It seems to me that one of the most baffling features of any dictatorship is immorality of those scoundrels who serve the ruler.
What kind of person should one be to take part in those mass murders? How on earth could a human being serve in Auschwitz, operating the gas chambers? What could justify his or her actions?
Of course, there is no sense in comparing Lukashenka to Hitler. Luckily, the president of Belarus is much milder. And even if he had ordered something really atrocious, I doubt that the army would have obeyed. But still, following the events of March, pondering over the violent dispersal of the rallies, I’m curious what made those young soldiers, riot policemen, KGB agents overreact, overdo their tasks? Well, I don’t think there was an order from somebody to brandish a gun in front of Siucyk’s forehead and tell him he would be executed. I can’t buy it there was an order to beat up all the arrestees in the buses, throw them on the floor, humiliate them, etc.
But even those who acted on the orders – how could one justify actions of judges who sentenced hundreds to detention, conducted trials like a joke without even a semblance of legality? How could one justify a learned professor flunking a student for his or her political stand? How could one forgive an official overseeing the major electoral fraud, bridling local opposition activists, and doing whatever “the center” orders? Is there any decency in these people?
Dictatorship is all about a test of each and every one of us – are we humans? Or are we just beasts, pets serving the Ubermensch that feeds us? Are we thinking just about today or do we envision ourselves in 10-30 years? Won’t we feel sorry for our actions if we behave like scum?
Now a bit about the sanctions from the EU. Yes, it is like a bad joke – 31 persons on the blacklist, while thousands of foreigners (according to some sources, more than 40 thousands) are not allowed to enter Belarus. Of course, it is hard to check the lists the EU officials must have received from the opposition. The lists must contain all the executors of the orders, maybe the enjoyers of their might, maybe just fearful creatures afraid to lose their jobs and keep on serving the dictator. It is also more than probable that the KGB has some discrediting information on every more or less significant official in the country and all it has to do is pull the strings. But anyway, these must be the people who violated the law and because of them Belarus is the European outsider for so many years. Lukashenka is still in power primarily because of them – the timorous, menial elites, the fawning officialdom. Corny as it gets, but if Belarus ever becomes a democracy, these people should undergo the process of lustration.
And they should make no mistake that they are invincible. As a left-wing satirist, Lolik Uskin, wrote in Nasa Niva, the mild sanctions of the EU came as a real surprise to those people who expected but were not included on the blacklist.

A few weeks ago, I watched quite a cute flick about Ukraine “Everything is Illuminated,” which is now available on DVD in the United States. I bet some Ukrainians would argue that this movie falsely represented their country, but still Hollywood paid at least some attention to Belarus’ southern neighbor. Another movie I’ve recently seen with some reference to Ukraine was “The Lord of War,” with Nicolas Cage as Ukrainian expat and the world’s leading arms dealer.
Indeed, when you look at the global scope of Hollywood productions, you are bound to find almost any state under the sun, represented in one or another way. However, there are few unfortunate grey spots, still untouched by the mastery of the American cinematography. One of them is Belarus. And I’m baffled why the heck we’d been left behind? Belarus has been coined “the last dictatorship in Europe.” This is a modern-day totalitarian state, where about a thousand protesters were arrested at the peaceful rallies. This is a land of mystery, where the time practically runs counterclockwise and the scholarly works seem to be reiterating one chorus-like message – there is lack of strategy towards it, lack of understanding, in fact, limited possibilities for field research. But where researchers lack empirical data for their studies, there is a huge unexplored world of fantasies, fiction, stereotypes about, and prejudices against this enigmatic land in the geographical center of Europe.
These days, as the election is over, think tanks, foundations, governments try to analyze the recent events and lay out possible work plans for the future. The key question is what could be done to help Belarus’ civic society deal with its toughening dictatorship. There’s been much disappointment among Belarusian oppositionists about EU’s very mild sanctions – just 31 persons are now denied entry to the EU. This is, indeed, like trying to scare off a mobster with a firecracker.
I don’t want to argue what kind of sanctions would be more efficient, but I guess more targeted investment is needed to spread free information to Belarus. I suggest a satellite TV channel is a good idea. But it should not be an encrypted one like RTVI, but should broadcast free-to-air from a popular transponder (for example, Hotbird or Sirius). This investment could come from the foreign governments and foundations, and I can’t say this kind of investment would eventually pay back.
But revolution or, say, democratization could be somewhat profitable, if some guy like Steven Spielberg decided to make a movie about it. Let us face the facts – we are interesting. We are an odd one out in Europe, and a lot of fascinating events happen in our country, just you need to pay a little bit more attention to them. This is a nation either beloved or forsaken by God. Maybe it is a test, or I don’t know what, but hey, we’ve been occupied by hegemons for centuries, millions of our nationals were killed in most major wars on the continent. We are torn between two civilizations, two geopolitical choices, and God knows where on earth we as a nation will end up in a century.
We are interesting. And by producing a film about us and our struggle, you would not only help us raise our social awareness, form our dusty national identity, resurrect our self-questioning, and maybe help our democratization, but you would also secure a investment that would pay back and even be quite profitable. Of course, you need to make it big, like you can, like you always do. Yeah, right, we need that big Hollywood star portray a Belarusian freedom fighter, and another big one playing a hateful dictator. This would be a smash hit. I can feel it. Can you?
You need a crowd scene, some Belarusian speakers? Our US Diaspora is not that small. Certainly, some guys would agree to contribute to this project. I assume somebody would come up with brilliant scripts, and some consultants, for example from Belarusan American Association, would help you picture everything more or less right and truthful.
This season has started as a rather mediocre one in terms of Hollywood film production… Lacking ideas? Well, then try looking closely at the baffling country between Russia and Poland.

I’m just back from a movie theater where I watched “Thank you for smoking”, a very funny film based on a Christopher Buckley novel about a chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, who makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers.
It is an amusing portrayal of a very clever spin master able to sell almost anything to the credulous public. Just as I was watching it, a striking analogy came to my mind. Alexander Zimovovsky, director of Belarusian state television and radio company, does exactly the same job. Previously he made his name hosting an opposition-bashing prime-time analytic program “Resonance.” But even in his new high-rank position he could not keep out of the heat and is currently hosting “Hard Talk,” a mere parody of the famous BBC program. Zimovsky also co-produced a calumniatory, slanderous documentary “Conspiracy Theory. Controllable Chaos.”
Anatol Labedzka, leader of Belarusian United Civic Party, is currently suing Zimovsky. The opposition leader accuses Belarusian television of libel and demands 1 billion Belarusian rubles as an indemnification of moral harm.
It is very doubtful that the trial will meet the requirements of the accuser. Zimovsky has already stated that he did not consider the material as libelous. He notified that the video episode where Labedzka figured had been received from an anonym discordant with Milinkevich’s stance.
Protected by the courts a dictator could boast of, Zimovsky can sell well about anything without any worries about ethic implications of journalistic profession. Nick Naylor of Big Tobacco could only dream of such a protectorate. But just as his cinematographic prototype, Zimovsky may well end up one day in a van with some masked “fans,” willing to say “thank you for lying.”

AFN reports two weeks of anarchy in Belarus are over. Lukashenka seems to be returning from the limbo or wherever he might have been. Evidence of his ability to work was offered today by his press service stating that he had met with the Ambassador of Kazakhstan signing off for his home country. The president’s press agent, Pavel Lohki, began picking up calls.

Another indication of “the resurrection” is the fuss on the October square of the military, and construction workers preparing for the inauguration, scheduled for April 8. Damn… lol

If you still don’t believe me he’s alive, check this video clip from the Belarusian Television.

Lukashenka, however, does not look quite healthy in this episode, does he?

Belarusian Partisan, I assume, was wrong hastening to inform that Lukashenka would visit Moscow on March 3. Some Russian websites reprinted the info, but Putin-Lukashenka tete-a-tete meeting looks less and less probable, as the Belarus’ re-elected leader hasn’t yet re-appeared to the public, like the Phoenix from its ashes. We haven’t seen Lukashenka for 13 days and counting. His site’s news section hasn’t been updated since last month, if not to consider vague reports of him being still alive. So today, according to the official website, the president congratulated the peoples of Belarus and Russia with the Day of their unification, which should’ve been celebratory. However, how should the nations celebrate the event without the process’s adamant inspirer? A political scientist and a blogger hiding under a soubriquet of Deeplake analyzed the text of the president’s congratulation and suggested that it was not his.

Farmost, stately Lukashenka personally edits his speeches and never contents himself with five short general paragraph, lacking any intelligible theses. The text was written by a person who is clearly out of the line; i.e. the task was clearly “descended” to lower levels of the Interior Ministry.

I don’t know whom to believe on this highly amusing situation, as there are all sorts of speculations, but clearly Lukashenka is having some serious health issues, unless he is dead. With each day of his absence, it is becoming harder and harder for state-run media to ignore the public curiosity.

Picture by (c) 2003-2005 Strangetown.

According to a new bruit, Lukashenka had a minor stroke, which might explain his absence. At this moment, he is said to be treated in a hospital at Krasnoarmeyskaya Street.
Lukashenka’s disappearance has been blabbed about throughout Belarus’ internet forums for quite a while already. Can you imagine that the president wouldn’t show up in public for more than ten days? Lukashenka hasn’t. His website offers some dubious notes of his minor activities – sent out a congratulation note, worked with documents, etc. But the president did not show up on TV, where he had been a star of almost every news hour. It is not surprising there are all sorts of speculations.
However, today one rumor shadowed all the others, as it was said to be “from a reliable source,” and maybe had some probability to it – Lukashenka had a stroke. First, it was posted to a members-only oppositional community website and then leaked to TUT.by forums. That said, let me mention it here and let you consider whether it could be a believable explanation of Lukashenka’s absence on the telly.