Episode Details

On Sunday Alexander Lukashenko, ruler of Belarus since 1994 claimed a landslide victory in the country's presidential election with an implausible 80% of the vote. Large protests broke out in the wake of the announcement of the result. I spoke to Nelly Bekus about Lukashenko's rise to power, how Belarus differs from other post-Soviet states in its relationship to the Soviet era, and how Covid19 and its economic impact helped spark the protests.