Lukashenka - Checkmate

The Belarusian regime has long been decaying from the inside.

The other day it became known that officials of the Slutsk District Executive Committee were granted extraordinary rights. Now officials can draw up administrative protocols for public insult or illegal actions while adoption.

Is this case special or a symptom indicating the system's state in Belarus? Coordinator of European Belarus civil campaign Artem Chernyak comments on the situation:

- Once my acquaintances said jokingly: Belarus is turning into the country of KGB and police officers, and inspectors. I believe that the Slutsk situation is not unique. It just takes a while for us to learn about it. But if we take a close look at the situation, we can see that local "princekins" are granted special powers.

And it concerns not only officials. Lawlessness originating from the very top has become the norm for "spear carriers". An administration at an enterprise fines workers for absence of flickers, a principal imposes mandatory exactions - waste paper, money, household appliances.

Those coming "from the outhouse to the penthouse" set their own rules, and this poses risk to the system of Lukashenka.

- And what is the sense of this risk?

- We are watching the decay of the authority in Belarus. The Belarusian dictatorship resembles a rotten trunk. Small and large "bark beetles" have made paths, loops, "serene harbors". Every district police officer has his own laws and rules. Every chairman of a village council makes himself comfortable with his mini-dictatorship. The system misses team work: it you hit this trunk hard enough, it will fall into pieces.

Fear of losing power and desire to live lush life is uniting; but this is not the foundation a strong and flexible authority can be built on.

Someday someone in a district executive committee will go too far, and if it coincides with a severe economic crisis or social tension, mass protests may uprise. Given that local "princekins" have managed to set themselves at odds with the people.

- That is, despite the rhetoric the dictator is weak, isn't he?

- What rhetoric do you mean? Long ago it was worth saying some "rhetoric" of Lukashenka existed amid alcohol addicted Yeltsin. Now it's just an expired show.

And we have recently had enough proves of Lukashenka's weakness. For example, the IMF refused to concern itself with the Belarusian dictator; and now he has to beg Russia for money which true value is hidden from the public. Perhaps, it may cause great resentment. What can be said about the person who behaves like a picker "at his own house"? He steals from "the family" and makes terms with neighboring suspicious characters.

The Belarusian regime has long been decaying from the inside.

In general, Lukashenka lost the game as soon as he started practicing lawlessness. Following the path, Lukashenka gives a checkmate to himself. The dictator is surrounded by unreliable people who make up his vertical. They are as two-faced and cynical as he, they will betray him at first opportunity. And still, they collect administrative fines on the territory they control.