| > These people are Belarusians Sure. Belarussians can be spurred into action just like anybody else. A few provocations is all it takes. > Most of my friends are against No doubt. Shit I (and most of my friends) were "against" Putin in Russia. I always vote for whatever is the least embarrassing clown that he allows to run against himself. Note also that I think Putin is the best Russian leader in almost a hundred years - that's how low the bar has been before him. Be that as it may, I think he's corrupt as fuck, and I don't think he's the best Russia has to offer. _Most_ of the people in Russia, however, vote for him. Even if he didn't rig the elections, he'd win, just not with such an overwhelming margin. I very strongly suspect the same is the case in Belarus - cities vote only mostly for Lukashenko, rural areas vote _overwhelmingly_ for Lukashenko, poor people vote as they're told by (government controlled) mass media. Having 10-15% of people who don't like him doesn't matter a whole lot as long as he keeps control of the national security apparatus, and as long as Putin doesn't want him gone. If Putin wants him gone, though, shit could turn real ugly real quick, and you wouldn't even know why. Don't get me wrong, I did not say it was "true". I merely said that this is what Lukashenko thinks. I also think it's somewhat plausible that Putin would use COVID19 crisis for geopolitical maneuvers. |
That's not true this time. It was like that before, now the candidate from opposition, Tihanouskaya, gained about 79% on at least 85 polling stations officially! The situation is different today, Lukashenko has 10-15% incl. army and police forces.
Voting committees were afraid to publish protocols in front of people yesterday night and were running and escorted by police away from polling stations in most cities in Belarus, no results were published on such stations. 33 cities had protests yesterday, there were no leaders, it was all decentralized, nobody expected so many hot spots and so many people. Today internal repression machinery was rerouted to regions, to "rural" regions, as you say.
He's fucked.