After winning in last Sunday’s presidential elections, labelled as rigged and non-free, by vast parts of the international community, Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko is facing the most severe challenge of his 26 years as dictator.
Since the elections, Belarus is experiencing a widespread uprising, in which people from various backgrounds have taken to the streets demanding freedom and change. Police and semiofficial militia have cracked down hard on the protesters, using lethal weapons and ammunition. Thousands of protesters have been arrested or detained.
In the latest policy brief from Stockholm Free World Forum, Gustaf Göthberg describes the current events and situation in Belarus. In addition, he provides policy recommendations for how Europe and the international community should act.
Read the brief here.
Watch this week’s Freeworld Connect webinar on the matter here.
The participants in the discussion were Gustaf Göthberg, Alena Kudzko, Director of the GLOBSEC Policy Institute in Bratislava, Marcus Kolga, Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, Anders Åslund, Senior Fellow at SFWF, Gunnar Hökmark, chairman of SFWF as well as Katarina Tracz, director of SFWF.
Gustaf Göthberg is a foreign policy commentator and analyst who visited Minsk in August 2020 to observe the elections. Göthberg has a professional backgorund as press secretary and political adviser for the Moderate Party. Between 2014 and 2016, he served as national board member and international secretary of the Moderate Youth Leage (MUF). Göthberg has been chairman of the Youth of the Swedish Atlantic Council and stood as a candidate for the European Parliament in elections 2019. He lives in Gothenburg where he holds local political office.