Lukashenko’s Soviet mercenaries
Belarus is Europe’s last dictatorship. Andrej Dynko explains how the country’s president Alexander Lukashenko retains his tight grip on power
Belarus: President orders controlled internet access in educational institutions
Internet access in educational institutions must be under control, said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko as he addressed educators on 29 August. Lukashenko said they and teachers should pay close attention to communication among young people online, primarily on social networks, which he labelled “a dangerous weapon” that could be used for “destructive purposes.”
RBS pulls out of Belarus after Index campaign
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The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced that it will no longer engage in “any type of capital-raising” on behalf of the government of Belarus after an Index on Censorship and Free Belarus Now campaign.
Belarus: Released political prisoner claimed he was tortured
Vladimir Yaromenok (Владимир Еременок, Уладзімер Яроменак), a Belarusian political prisoner released on 13 August following President Alexander Lukashenko’s pardoning of nine individuals convicted for the December 2010 protests in Minsk has said he was tortured while in a KGB detention unit. Yaromenok, 20, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in a colony with the highest security regime in May for having helped organise and participate in mass riots. He served 15-day and seven-day terms at two separate prisons before being referred to a KGB detention unit.