{"id":11344,"date":"2022-01-31T05:02:48","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T02:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/belarus-not-expected-to-return-to-normality-under-lukasenka\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"belarus-not-expected-to-return-to-normality-under-lukasenka","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11344\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarus not expected to return to normality under Luka\u0161enka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>In his January 28 address, Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka attempted to reassure voters and his critics of his legitimacy and the country\u2019s good prospects. But his claim to legitimacy remains a hard sell.<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka used to deliver his annual addresses in April and May. He changed his habit in 2020 to address the nation on August 4, days before the presidential election. He skipped the address in 2021 and then brought it forward to January in 2022. The changing schedule in itself is an indicator of instability.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Contradictory statements<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka used his speech to claim that the country was back to normal and that he was a legitimate head of state in control, but often contradicted himself.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He said that \u201cBelarus was confidently moving forward\u201d and that other countries copied its system. But the first part of his speech was about a country facing a serious internal and external crisis.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He reprised themes that he had spelled out previously, denying internal causes of public discontent in 2020 and claiming that only 10 percent of Belarusians disapproved of his policy.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Crisis spills out of Belarus<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t He talked a lot about sour relations with neighbors and a looming conflict in the region, contradicting his initial claim that life was back to normal. His alarmist remarks prove that Belarus is no longer a donor of security in the region and that the internal political crisis has spilled out of the country.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He asked the Belarusians whether they were ready to pay for independence. The question suggests that he has not done enough to safeguard it during his 27 years in office.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka was on the defensive throughout his speech. He argued that it was not he who destabilized regional security. He assured the audience that there will be no war in the region, but one unconvinced participant asked him after his speech whether her children would have to fight. He assured the audience that Belarus would not give up independence but failed to explain the presence of a large number of Russian troops on its soil.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t His speech laced with combative rhetoric focused on fighting internal and external enemies, not on peace and development.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Crackdown to be permanent<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka made it clear that he was ready to shut down the High-Tech Park and businesses that he saw as a political threat to his rule. He credited himself with having eliminated all non-governmental organizations and promised that the government will set up pro-government associations instead.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He called on opponents who fled the country to repent and return to Belarus for serving their prison sentences. He seems determined to continue his crackdown on dissent after a constitutional referendum scheduled for February 27. Therefore, Belarus is likely to remain a turbulent place as long as he stays in power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d In his January 28 address, Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka attempted to reassure voters and his critics of his legitimacy and the country\u2019s good prospects. But his claim to legitimacy remains a hard sell. Luka\u0161enka used to deliver his annual addresses in April and May. He changed his habit in 2020 to address the nation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11344","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Belarus not expected to return to normality under Luka\u0161enka | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d In his January 28 address, Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka attempted to reassure voters and his critics of his legitimacy and the country\u2019s\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11344\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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