The country’s strongman, Aleksandr Lukashenko, finds himself in a bind. He survives with support from Russia, but entering the fight could be ‘political suicide.’
A sharp shift toward deadly strikes signaled that domestic pressure over Russia’s flailing war effort had escalated to the point where Vladimir Putin felt a decisive show of force was necessary.
Democracy advocates from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine were jointly awarded the world’s most prestigious peace prize, an implicit condemnation of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine and repression at home.