Socks of Death

Think of a totally unleashed Trumpian autocrat, free to punish (execute, imprison, kidnap anywhere on earth, torture, assassinate, etc.) political opponents at will. To censor the slightest expression of opposition with severe consequences to the offender. Someone able to divert a passing commercial flight that has no intention or need to land in the subject nation just to drag a political opponent off the aircraft for crimes against the state (basically opposing the autocrat). Kim Jong Un? Vladimir Putin? Decent role models, for sure, and indeed the autocrat discussed in this blog has threatened the growing mass of continuing angry local protestors, beyond the normal police and military beatings, arrests, shootings and gassings; he said, if necessary, he will ask Mr. Putin for Russian military assistance in quelling public unrest.

The miscreant autocrat is Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, “winning” all intervening elections with questionable practices. In 2012, he even boasted that he was “the last dictator in Europe.” His is and has been a brutal and repressive regime. He introduced a new national flag – just like the flag from the Soviet era, red and green but minus the communist hammer and sickle – in 1995. The nationalist flag, representing a true independent democrat state, has been (on and off) a pure red and white banner. That red and white combination is today taken as a symbol of unlawful protest against the Lukashenko regime. 

Even if that coloration is worn in casual dress… like sweat socks. In May, the BBC reported: “A woman [Natalia Sivtsova-Sedushkina] on her way to a driving lesson was grabbed by four men in black balaclavas in the capital Minsk. They told her she was dressed improperly. The reason? She was wearing white socks with red stripes, like the banned flag.

“She was also accused of flashing V for Victory signs to passing drivers - who saluted back - and was heavily fined [$906]… She was prosecuted under laws banning unauthorised protests. Her offending socks and red trainers were easy to see as she was wearing short jeans at the time… The internet shop where she bought the socks has now stopped selling them - it does however sell similar white socks with black stripes.” 

Sivtsova-Sedushkina’s fate was hardly an isolated incident. For example, the BBC also reported: “A man was arrested in Minsk for allegedly supporting protesters with a red-and-white ‘paper banner’ on his balcony. Andrei Parkhomenko denied that, saying it was the box for an LG TV set, in those colours, which he had not removed as he had only just moved into his new flat.” And the list goes on.

Activists can expect harsh treatment if caught and prosecuted. Like the death penalty or long prison sentences in brutal confinement, where somehow the activist inmate “dies” while in custody. Torture is standard as well. Sometimes that brutality looks more like an assassination, particularly when an activist somehow finds refuge in another country: “[Anti-Lukashenko activist, who assisted many fleeing Belarus] Vitaly Shishov's body was found hanged in a park in Kyiv, a day after he failed to return from a jog. Police have opened a murder inquiry… The United Nations said Mr Shishov's death adds another level to ‘our worries about what is happening in Belarus,’ and called for an investigation… Mr Shishov's death is the latest incident to prompt international scrutiny of President Lukashenko's authoritarian government.” BBC.com, August 3rd. 

In May, Lukashenko and Belarus generated international opprobrium, including a litany of US and European sanctions, after a commercial Ryanair jet was ordered, under force of accompanying MIG fighters, to land in Belarus (not on the flight plan), specifically to arrest an anti-Lukashenko journalist, Roman Protasevich. Facing a possible death sentence, Protasevich and his girlfriend are currently under house arrest until more formal sentencing.

Efforts to unseat Lukashenko through the elective process have been uniformly unsuccessful, but no one truly believes that Belarus election results are ever fairly tallied. Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, now living in exile in Lithuania, “lost” to Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential election. "I absolutely believe in a non-violent transition of power," Tsikhanouskaya, a 38-year-old former teacher and blogger, told Reuters [reported August 3rd]. "What is going on in Belarus is our pain - we want this hell finished as soon as possible in our country." Most educated analysts have little doubt that Tsikhanouskaya won the election.

Even the Olympics were scarred by this dictatorship: “Poland granted a visa Monday [8/2] to a Belarusian Olympic sprinter who said that she feared for her safety and that her team’s officials tried to force her to fly home… An activist group that is helping athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya told the Associated Press that it bought her a plane ticket to Warsaw for the coming days.

“The latest standoff apparently began after Tsimanouskaya criticized how officials were managing her team — setting off a massive backlash in state-run media back home, where authorities relentlessly crack down on government critics. The runner said on her Instagram account that she was put in the 4x400 relay even though she has never raced in the event.

“The runner was then apparently hustled to the airport but refused to board a flight for Istanbul, Turkey, and instead approached police for help. In a video message distributed on social media, she also asked the International Olympic Committee for assistance.” Associated Press, August 3rd. 

Why is this autocratic nation of interest to the United States? Not only is Belarus a destabilizing force in that essential space between the European Union and Russia, but it represents how even elected leaders can transition into dictators if democratic checks and balances are ignored. It is a modern-day warning to the rather significant populist movement in the United States that embraces voter suppression and enhanced police power against legitimate liberal protestors. It reminds us all how close we have come to losing our own democratic system of government and how little it would take to push us off the edge.

I’m Peter Dekom, and democracy cannot take care of itself without a deeply committed democratic citizenry.