A Sleeping Monster? - January 24th 2025
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It is January 24. If you think the American elections weren't enough, well, in just a couple of days you are in for another one. This Sunday Belarus will be electing its president. Most likely you have not heard anything about it. Even in Ukraine, where the common border with Belarus is almost a thousand miles long, few people know about it.

Why? Because these are elections with a predetermined outcome. Everyone already knows who the president will be, even if no one votes for him. Under any circumstances, Alexander Lukashenko will remain the head of the state.

This mentally ill man, and he truly is ill, having undergone treatment in the 1980s without success, has held Belarus hostage for 30 years and plans to secure another 5-year term.

He is a true maniac, willing to do anything to cling to power. What's more, he despises the country he governs. He has no respect for Belarusian history, culture or language. To give you an idea, there is no complete version of the Belarusian constitution in the national language.

It exists only in Russian. The country's official symbols are not the national flag and coat of arms, but slightly modified Soviet ones. All talented artists, writers and musicians have either been exiled from Belarus or are behind bars.

Today, as it was in the USSR, creativity is only allowed with the state's permission and under its control. Lukashenko uses violence to stay in power, killing and torturing those who seek freedom and democracy. He's been doing this for 30 years and plans to continue. Despite all this, many in Ukraine just a few years ago considered Belarus an ideal state and Lukashenko the best leader.

Why this happened and what it led to I won't explain here. Better yet, I'll give you a link to my sub stack. I recently published a piece there about Belarus. If you find it interesting, please share it. And if you are not interested, you can check my other articles. There is one about Christmas in the Middle East, another about the founder of the world's first anarchist republic, one about Bethlehem and much more.

Writing these pieces is incredibly important to me. Not only to stay connected to my main profession, but also because your donations for them literally keep me going. If you enjoy my stories, you can always support me. And also you can follow me on Blue Sky. All links in the description. By the way, Belarus isn't a foreign land to me. My last name likely has a Belorussian roots.

I've worked there, narrowly avoided ended up in one of the Lukashenko's prisons and have plenty of stories to share about Belarus. If you are interested let me know and I'll dedicate an entire episode to this topic. Because the Lukashenko regime is really a sleeping monster filled with hatred towards democracy, obsessed with the Soviet past and now armed with Russian nuclear bombs. And this monster is right in the center.

of Europe.