Belarus intensifies crackdown on the media

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 21 Jul 2021 by Alex Teddy

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Lukashenka is becoming even more oppressive. On July 20 more journalists and historians were arrested, and the bank accounts of the Belarusian Association of Journalists' were frozen. The same happened to the PEN Club and other NGOs.The police raided the homes of 66 people who are members of various NGOs. The authorities have not stated a reason for these raids.In April 2021 Minsk said that more sanctions could lead to harsher measures against civic groups. Not all of these groups are necessarily oppositional. Therefore these civic groups are being penalized for what foreign governments have done. In fairness, many opposition groups have called for foreign governments to impose stringent sanctions. The Belarusian Foreign Minister boasted that civil society would be prevented from functioning. Svytlana Tsikhanouskaya claimed to win the 2020 presidential election. She is currently visiting the United States. She has handed a list to the US government of organizations that she said should be sanctioned. Tsikhanouskaya asked the US to guarantee Belarusian independence. Presumably that is because Belarus is now so heavily reliant on Russia that she fears it will be absorbed into Russia either officially or unofficially. An opposition presidential candidate was recently handed a 15-year jail sentence for bank fraud. He said this is a bogus charge intended to punish him for democratically challenging Lukashenka. Meanwhile over 1,400 illegal immigrants crossed the border from Belarus into Lithuania. That is a huge YoY increase. Lithuania accused Belarus of assisting illegal immigrants as a means to punish Lithuania for backing the opposition. Belarus usually controls its borde...