The Sunday Times has a two-page summary article about the steps Aleksandr Lukashenko is taking to retain his hold on power, and the obstacles that the Belarussian opposition, which has tried to learn from the experiences of Ukraine, face:
The president has tightened his grip further since the “orange revolution” that brought the pro-western Viktor Yushchenko to power in neighbouring Ukraine. Several activists who attended the street protests there were beaten by KGB officers on their return.
Last month Mikhail Marinich, a leading opposition figure, was jailed for five years on charges of stealing computers from the American embassy — even though the embassy said it had lent them to him.
“Events in Ukraine have made him even more paranoid,” said Zinaida Goncharova, the wife of Viktor Goncharov, an opposition leader who vanished with a friend nearly six years ago after leaving a Minsk bathhouse.
Don’t expect times to get much easier for the opposition. Lukashenko has just announced that he is to take over direct control of the Belarussian KGB (yes, they’re still called KGB in Belarus!):
"I am not going to give control over the KGB to some civil society, as our neighbors so beautifully put it. Control by civil society means disruption of the law enforcement structures," Lukashenko said while opening a meeting with the KGB’s leadership on Tuesday.
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