Belarus is ‘soft dictatorship’, Nobel literature

BERLIN: Nobel Literature Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich on Saturday warned the EU on the eve of lop-sided elections in her country that Belarus is a “soft dictatorship”.
“Every four years, new European officials come to power and think they can solve the (President Alexander) Lukashenko problem without knowing that he is a man who is untrustworthy,” Alexievich told a news conference in Berlin.
“He is a ‘Soviet man’ and will never change,” she said, referencing “Homo sovieticus”, a sarcastic pseudo-Latin term for those in former Soviet states who have difficulty shaking off the authoritarian mindset of the past.
European sources said Friday that the EU was ready to suspend sanctions against Lukashenko after he released the country’s last political prisoners in a surprise move in August.
The six opposition leaders included Mikola Statkevich, a former presidential candidate imprisoned in 2010.
Nevertheless, Belarus remains “a soft dictatorship”, Alexeivich said, adding: “Stalin’s dictatorship is not the only model. There are lots of other variations.”
The sanctions entail travel bans and asset freezes against Lukashenko and around 170 other individuals and 14 groups imposed in January 2011 for alleged human rights violations.
The EU sources said a decision on lifting them would be taken before October 31, when the measures expire and must be either renewed or scrapped.
One source said the decision would hinge on the elections passing off peacefully.
The 61-year-old Belarussian strongman is expected to win a fifth consecutive term.
Alexievich said: “No one doubts that Lukashenko will win... We all suspect that for Lukashenko it doesn’t matter how we will vote, what is important is those who will count the ballots, and so there will be no surprise,” she said.
Lukashenko is standing against three virtual unknowns, only one of whom, Tatiana Korotkevich, has bothered to run a campaign.