“Arrests, searches and beating up in Belarus… in less than 72 hours”

The latest tricks of the Belarusian regime amaze by their outward senselessness.

Why building bridges with the West, they crack down on independent press inside the country, break up scarce street rallies and make life a nightmare for NGO activists, I pray?

After a short inactivity the regime seems to start making up lost ground. “Demonstration of force” has found expression in:

- disband of a meeting dedicated to St. Valentine’s Day;

- trials over activists of the Union of Poles in Belarus;

- detention of participations of the rally on February 16;

- a search of the editorial office of “Narodnaya Volya”;

- a new detention of the Union of Poles in Belarus.

Have I forgotten something? All these facts have happened in less than 72 hours, by the way. Liberalization is making progress, so to say.

Which is notable, neither the mentioned street rallies, nor the Union of Poles, or “Narodnaya Volya” constituted a serious danger for the current authorities. What harm would be done if girls from the Young Front would march from October Square to Independence Square on St. Valentine’s Day?

But no, they wanted to show who the boss is. Riot policemen have found worthy enemies…

Syarhei Martynau, Foreign Minister, goes to Warsaw to sign agreement on local border traffic. And without a moment's hesitation he states that “the Belarusian authorities do not carry out repressions against the Polish minority”.

And in a few days activists of the Union of Poles are sent behind the bars. Fortunately, not for years, but for days. But the question is the same: what for?

And which is more, a search is held in the editorial office of “Narodnaya Volya”, because of some addresses sent by someone somewhere many months ago.

Arrests, searches, beating up – what’s the aim of all that?

“The level of fear should be maintained,” Alyaksanr Klaskouski writes. “A sticky, nasty everyday fear is like a lubricant for the “Belarusian model”.

It is the truth. But only part of the truth. And the second part is that the present regime in Belarus just cannot live in other way. And they do not want to learn it.

So all the discussions about a gradual, “soft” transformation of the authoritarian regime into something more or less decent are talks to feed the poor. This caterpillar won’t develop into a butterfly ever.