Thread by @veruka2

Wow. A map of all the demonstrations in Minsk. The footage of intense police violence against protestors there has been intense and hard to watch.

FP has done a great explainer about the horrid after math of a rigged presidential election. Link in 🧵.

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https://twitter.com/ukrpravda_news/status/1293010211393994753

But for those of you who don't know about recent events, here's a little bit about what's been going on.

Also here's that FP link I promised: foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/10/bel…

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Alexander Lukashenko has been the president of Belarus for 26 years. TWENTY SIX YEARS. That is very not natural. He has rightly been called a dictator, running a massively isolationist economy, controlling news, controlling media, and using police violence against opposition 3/

Lukashenko, it is broadly accepted, has been falsifying elections to stay in power for most, if not all, of his presidency. There have been protests against this. Back in 2006, there were massive public demonstrations, which led to intense police sweeps and harsh oppression 4/

I visited Minsk in the summer of 2007. Even then, more than a year after these protests took place, many people who were arrested in massive street sweeps during the demonstrations were still in prison.

rferl.org/a/1067081.html
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It bears mentioning to that during that 2007 visit, media was so strictly controlled that even in the massive capital city, with a pop of nearly 2 million, almost no one had internet access. 6/

We had to go to a local post office and wait in line for hours to use the one computer in the entire rayon with an internet connection just to check our email and let our families know we were doing ok. And we nearly got arrested for taking this pic of a public building. 7/

Despite this harsh suppression of opposition, Lukashenko faced his first meaningful challenger to the presidency this year: Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who is FIERCE AF.

vox.com/2020/8/10/2135…

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Her husband, Sergei, was originally running for president as an opposition candidate, but he, along with other candidates, were arrested on trumped up charges. This happens ALL THE TIME. Svetlana stepped into the vacuum to challenge Lukashenka. Bad ass.
9/
washingtonpost.com/world/europe/b…

So, election day was Sunday Aug 9. Lukashenko is up to his old tricks, but the enthusiasm for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is thick on the ground, and folks are allowing themselves to get excited. Could she actually win? 10/

Exit polls all around Belarus showed Tikhanovskaya with a strong lead. It was unheard of. But when the formal results were announced, it was declared that Lukasheno got 80% of the votes, Tikhanovskaya just 9%. These numbers absolutely can't be real.
cnn.com/2020/08/10/eur…
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Protests erupt in the capital. And Lukasheno is NOT HAVING IT. Video of police suppression of protestors is...upsetting. Video and photos in link. TW for cops viciously assaulting people in the street. At least one person has died.

euroradio.fm/en/police-say-…
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And this is ongoing. Protests are ongoing. Police violence is ongoing. This is happening. In Minsk. Right now. Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske has done an extraordinary job of keeping up with everything going on.
en.hromadske.ua/tags/Minsk
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They are posting live updates--and sometimes live video--to their Ukrainian language website. If you don't read Ukrainian, (1) Ukrainian is an incredible language you should totally learn some words, and (2) google translate does a swell job.
hromadske.ua/posts/u-biloru…
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Update: It also appears that internet service has been either heavily restricted or down entirely in Belarus for the last 48hrs or so. During the 2006 protests, before everyone was online, they shut down cell service before police swarmed protestors. 15/
reuters.com/article/us-bel…

And the opposition candidate, who by all accounts (except the official Lukashenko endorsed account) won the election, has fled to Lithuanua. Probably the only reason she's not in prison right now. 16/
bbc.com/news/world-eur…