Yury Drakakhrust is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Belarus Service.
Nobel Prize-winning writer Svetlana Alexievich has condemned brutal police violence against demonstrators across Belarus, saying "the authorities have declared war on their people" and the President Alyaksandr Lukashenka should step down from power to prevent a bloody civil war.
Belarus has seen tumultuous presidential elections in the past, but this time things could be different. The opposition seems to have moved beyond the country's perennial Europe-Russia divide and found a formula that more Belarusians are ready to embrace.
Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich says she will support the opposition candidate in her improbable bid to unseat authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
The terrorist bombing in the Minsk subway in April and the terrorist bombing and shooting in Oslo on July 22 have at least one thing in common: according to official accounts, both attacks were the work either of lone terrorists or a small group of acquaintances.
Belarus's postelection repression has stifled the current wave of protest. It also made Minsk's international stance much more difficult. But what's least clear is how these events will play out in Belarusian society.
The campaign for Belarus's September 28 legislative elections is quiet. There have been no debates on television. No loud demonstrations. There are no election posters festooning the cities, whether for opposition or for pro-government candidates. We are holding elections, but there is no campaign. Why?
In the wake of the Minsk bombing, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka fired two top aides and brought in some newcomers. But who are these people? And what do the changes really mean?
