Undermined by the pandemic and a deepening economic crisis, and surrounded by sycophants, Aleksandr Lukashenko badly miscalculated in the recent election.
Author: ANDREW HIGGINS
Chat Group Becomes Target of Moscow’s Wrath as Security Crackdown Widens
The group started out as an online discussion of hobbies, schoolwork and sometimes politics. But then it was infiltrated by an informer for Russia’s all-powerful security services.
‘Cocktails and Masks Don’t Really Go Together’
Young Russians are partying again, seeking a return to normal life and willing to risk a coronavirus surge. “We are people, not robots, and want to have a life,” said a bar patron (and doctor).
Belarus Says Russian Mercenaries Planned to Disrupt August Election
State media says 33 Russian fighters have been arrested in Belarus, dramatically escalating a feud between longtime allies.
Russian Historian Who Found Stalin-Era Graves Is Convicted
Yuri A. Dmitriev was sentenced to three and a half years in jail in a sex-crimes case that his supporters say is an effort to silence him for work that questioned the Kremlin’s glorification of Russia’s past.
Defying Kremlin, Protesters Stage Biggest Rally Yet in Russian Far East
Despite pleas and threats from Moscow, tens of thousands gathered peacefully in Khabarovsk and other cities to protest the arrest of a popular regional governor.
Protests Rock Russian Far East With Calls for Putin to Resign
Tens of thousands took to the streets in Russia’s usually somnolent hinterland after the arrest of a popular regional governor.
Russian Governor Is Accused of Multiple Murders as Kremlin Claws Back Powers
The arrest of a popular regional leader in eastern Russia on suspicion of decades-old crimes sent a blunt warning to local elites empowered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Russia Arrests Space Agency Official, Accusing Him of Treason
The detention of Ivan Safronov, a former journalist who had been working as an adviser at Roscosmos, took many by surprise. He was accused of passing secrets to an unnamed NATO country.
In Russia, They Tore Down Lots of Statues, but Little Changed
“Waging war on bronze men doesn’t make your life any more moral or just,” one observer noted. “It does nothing really.”