many believe that lukashenko wants to recreate stalin style grip on the country, so nobody dares to contest the next election. many belarussians came here to lithuania in an attempt to flee the repressions. there are currently around 19,000 of them living here. in retaliation, the belarussian regime has decided to target their relatives who stayed behind. and many fear that this isjust the beginning. anatoly was detained more times than he can remember, but he says that families of activists were not being targeted before. translation: this is the first time. it was always a war, but there were some rules. there were some lines they wouldn t cross. now we have gotten to the point where, before shooting their enemies, they put our children in front of us. in a country that claims to have no political prisoners, there are currently almost 1,500 people in prison for political reasons. one of them is ex presidential hopeful viktar babaryka. his son eduard was his campaign manager
lukashenko has repeatedly said that his country stands for peace between russia and ukraine. but despite this, he allowed russia to use belarus as a platform to send troops into ukraine in 2022. in 2020, lukashenko claimed another presidential victory, but the results have not been recognised by the west. the election sparked unprecedented protests demanding lu kashenko s resignation. these ended in a repression that continues to this day. translation: it would have happened in 2020 if it wasn t for several - pillars of lukashenko s regime. the main ones are putin and fear. i ll give you this example. lukashenko didn t change the name kgb, not because he lacks imagination. he, as a deeply soviet person, understands that the kgb represents fear.