Andrei Khrapavitski: Belarusian Presidential Election 2010 Blog

In Krasnoyarsk, Russia, goths and emos are protesting the laws banning piercing, black-pink clothing and hair styles. Last Saturday, about 150 youngsters demanded that the Russian Duma should rather work on more serious things than try to control youth self-expression.

I am writing these lines from a predominantly Catholic country, Lithuania, which enjoys not just a plethora of beautiful medieval churches and their respectful congregations. But it has a very strong youth rock and goth subcultures, the representatives of which often base their belief systems on something other than Catholicism and Christianity. Some local headbangers and goths adhere to Nietzschean nihilism, Satanism, or atheism, but it seems to me that the majority seek spiritual accord with the heathen faith of their forefathers. Lithuania, last Christianized in Europe, is a fertile soil for Pagan revival. Rasos Svente, a Pagan holiday of love, is a national holiday. Romuva, a Pagan church, is officially registered. There are festivals celebrating the pagan heritage. There are rock and metal bands mingling hard guitar riffs with authentic bagpipes. Yes, folks, Lithuania prides itself in its pre-Christian tradition.

Hence, even though the dressed-in-black teens may freak out local conservatives, nobody is seriously trying to shut them down in any way. Of course, Lithuanian authorities go harsh on some intolerant rightwing groups propagating neo-Nazi ideas, but seriously… these groups are not as well-spotted here than in Russia, where some extreme nationalists infiltrated even the popular political parties.

Here’s my stance. I believe that intolerance and extremism is one thing, it should be dealt with and decisively acted upon. But let us not confuse youth self-expression with extremism.

Belarus is a good example where the most harmless youth groups are taken for some bad guys which pose some threat either to the population (that’s the officially circulated pretense) or to the regime (this pretense is not publicly spoken about but is a more probable one). An example is the Belarusian Christian Democracy. This informal group united under Christian principles and plans to register as a political party. Their leader, Paval Sieviaryniec, is one of the most charismatic young politicians in Belarus, an ex-chair of Malady Front (Young Front) and a true believer.

I am writing about this, as one of my colleagues and coauthors of westki.info, Kastus Shytal, was recently detained twice as he visited a gathering of Catholic youth and distributed there a Christian youth newspaper “Pramien” (Sun Beam). He serves on the constituent committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy and is surely on a black list in his home region of Dokshytsy.

Here’s what happens. Russian goths and emos are protesting against the creeping totalitarianism in Russia, demanding freedom of self-expression. Meanwhile, Belarusian Christians get arrested for attempts to express their views freely.

Totally different is life in Vilnius, Lithuania. Christians and goths alike can enjoy the greatness of democracy in action. Some Christians and heathens may be not quite amicable toward one another, but they can peacefully coexist. And this is the virtue of freedom.

As expected, the Belarusian authorities used the terror act as a pretense for further intimidation of the Belarusian opposition. The KGB arrested four members of an organization “Biely Lehijon” (White Legion), which has long been nonexistent. For several years, there were no reports on any activities of the group. Moreover, many regional activists of diverse opposition structures are now being summoned to the police for interrogation.

Another outcome of the blast is that Alexandar Lukashenka fired Viktar Sheiman, the State Secretary of the Defense Council, and Gennady Nevyglas, the head of the Presidential Administration. A few days earlier, he criticized both for inactivity during the incident.

Sheiman was one of the most devoted and trusted confidants of the Belarusian president. He was side by side with Lukashenka from day one, and his resignation leaves analysts guessing what black cat has run between the old friends. Nevyglas, by the way, was a man of Sheiman, and seems like Lukashenka decided to make sure this power brunch in his close milieu is safely cut off.

On July 3, Minsk celebrated the “official” Independence Day. Hundreds of thousands gathered for a late-night concert at a local war memorial. The president himself was there.

After midnight, the unheard of happened. A bomb exploded injuring at least 50 people. Strangely, the president, who was not far away, was not taken to safety by the security forces. To the contrary, he appeared at the site of the bombing within minutes. Strangely, the concert was not stopped and the festivities continued, even though another explosive device was found by the police.

The opposition unanimously condemned this act of terror and called upon the authorities to conduct fair and open investigation. The opposition expressed hope that the explosion would not result in a new wave of repressions against the opposition activists.

Both the United States and Russia offered help to investigate the accident. The Belarusian government accepted help from the latter but also did not refuse some assistance from the former.

Lukashenka in his recent interview promised not to organize witch hunt, but said that the response to the organizers of the blast would be harsh whoever they were.

I guess there’s hardly a blogger in Belarus who hasn’t commented on the bomb blast. People are guessing what happened and what consequences it would have. There are lots of different versions, but I doubt there is much sense to recapitulate them here. One is for sure. This is the first major terror act in Belarus. Even if the regime itself is not involved (and most probably, it isn’t as many prominent analysts, like Silitski and Feduta, think), there’s a damn good pretense to use this bomb blast for intimidation of the opposition. The blast is especially handy for this matter, as it happened a few days after the parliamentary race had officially started in Belarus.