Kryvoi, Yaraslau ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-5217 (2016) Belarus in: nations in transition 2016. Other. Freedom House, Washington House.

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Abstract

July 2015 marked the 25th anniversary of Belarus’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. After a brief period of democratic transition in the early 1990s, the country gradually developed into a consolidated authoritarian regime under President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. In October 2015, Lukashenka secured a fifth term in an election that observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) did not recognize as free and fair. However, unlike the December 2010 presidential election, the 2015 voting was not followed by violence or imprisonment of major opposition figures.

Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the subsequent conflict in eastern Ukraine had an important psychological impact on Belarusian authorities. The government is increasingly concerned by Russian actions in Ukraine and is trying to distance itself from its eastern neighbor. Belarus is also suffering from the effects of Russia’s economic downturn. In an attempt to improve relations with the West and offset the influence of an increasingly assertive Russia, the Belarusian administration released all political prisoners in August 2015.

Item Type:	Report (Other)
Subjects:	Social sciences
Related URLs:	Publisher
Depositing User:	Yarik Kryvoi
Date Deposited:	03 May 2016 09:15
Last Modified:	04 Nov 2024 12:38
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1918

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