Belarus

[Achtung Englander]

I have to give credit to the 80% silent majority who are not coming out on the street

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[The Jackal]

Informative and insightful.

[Wrathbone]

Some mocked Mr Lukashenko on his 66th birthday, carrying a cockroach puppet and chanting "happy birthday, you rat".

Belarus: Where cockroach puppets are easier to get than rat puppets and protest chants are set in stone.

[Achtung Englander]

What I find so ridiculous is the idiocy of the situation. If you want to be a dictator - come out and say so. To have "mock" elections and steal them - well yeah...what did you expect was going to happen.

At the end of the day who controls Belarus ?....the top guy in the army. He is ultimately the king maker.

[The Jackal]

What I find so ridiculous is the idiocy of the situation. If you want to be a dictator - come out and say so. To have "mock" elections and steal them - well yeah...what did you expect was going to happen.

At the end of the day who controls Belarus ?....the top guy in the army. He is ultimately the king maker.

A kingmaker is usually a third-party actor. Lukashenko is the "top guy in the army". He made himself it.

[Achtung Englander]

What I find so ridiculous is the idiocy of the situation. If you want to be a dictator - come out and say so. To have "mock" elections and steal them - well yeah...what did you expect was going to happen.

At the end of the day who controls Belarus ?....the top guy in the army. He is ultimately the king maker.

A kingmaker is usually a third-party actor. Lukashenko is the "top guy in the army". He made himself it.

The real general. Not the pretend one

[The Jackal]

What I find so ridiculous is the idiocy of the situation. If you want to be a dictator - come out and say so. To have "mock" elections and steal them - well yeah...what did you expect was going to happen.

At the end of the day who controls Belarus ?....the top guy in the army. He is ultimately the king maker.

A kingmaker is usually a third-party actor. Lukashenko is the "top guy in the army". He made himself it.

The real general. Not the pretend one

Which one? The CGS appointed by Lukashenko himself, or the MoD who's compared the protesters to Nazi collaborators?

[Achtung Englander]

Looks like Europe has a new family dynasty dictatorship

[The Jackal]

You didn't know this before that post? Are you honestly saying you made the previous statements without any proof?

[Animalmother]

Putin has stationed a group of "special police" (FSB) at the border just incase they need to help Lukashenko when this inevitably goes tits up. No doubt they'll also annex a chunk of the country saying it's to protect ethnic Russians.

I think Lukashenko actually is the one in overall control. Belarus kept the old Soviet style of government after the breakup of the USSR so the population was just used to it. But all it will take is the army or police to change sides for him to get the boot.

[Achtung Englander]

You didn't know this before that post? Are you honestly saying you made the previous statements without any proof?

yes I knew but the obvious gerrymandering makes it noticeable

[Wrathbone]

I've not seen our government raise so much as an eyebrow over it, let alone condemn the continuation of a European dictatorship and call for free elections (which wouldn't achieve anything except, you know, taking a damn stance). Clearly they're hoping it'll roll off the news cycle and nobody will care enough to question why it's not even been acknowledged.

I guess our post-WW2 relationships with dictators has been murky at best. On the one hand we had Thatcher cosying up to Pinochet, and on the other hand we had the gigantic dumpster fire that was (and still is) Iraq. Cameron and May got away with doing precisely nothing with Erdogan over in Turkey, so presumably Boris is following suit and whistling nonchalently until something less troublesome to deal with comes along.

Maybe he's taking note of the fact that in Belarus and America alike, irksome protesters can be whisked off the street and thrown into a van by police without charge and nobody can do anything tangible to stop it.

[Achtung Englander]

The number of dictators in Europe is rising...what with Hungry and Turkey joining the club

If Trump declares himself one by refusing to step down if he loses, there is no such thing as liberty anymore. People are saying the US could actually slip into another civil war.

To think we were going in the right direction until we weren't

[Animalmother]

So we're in the middle of a flu pandemic, heading towards a global recession and the rise of right-wing nationalism...funny how history repeats itself