Belarus: Media Dissidences in the Face of Authoritarianism
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innovation of the Belarusian people have allowed them to evade censorship and fight for a democratic future.
5. Lukashenko’s Attempts at Regime Preservation Lukashenko has also attempted to preserve his regime and limit Western influence through tactics above and beyond his extreme measures against domestic reporting. While the landscape is constantly evolving, the regime’s most salient current tactics involve opposition suppression, Russian support, and constitutional referendums. Though Lukashenko has denied holding his opposition as political prisoners, he has arrested many opposition activists on a variety of charges since the 2020 election. According to the Viasna Human Rights Center, as of January 13, 2022, 981 people in Belarus have been arrested as political prisoners since 2009, with an influx of arrests between 2020 and 2022.64 One of the most prominent targets was Sergei Tikhanovsky, who, in December 2021, was sentenced to 18 years for organizing and inciting mass unrest and hatred. Other would-be 2020 candidates, protest organizers, opposition bloggers, and veteran politicians have also been tried and sentenced, receiving terms ranging from eleven to sixteen years.65 Lukashenko has also relied on longstanding ally Russia for regime survival, both borrowing from its authoritarian tactics and utilizing their support. Lukashenko is launching Russian-like cyber-attacks to hold power: Ghostwriter, a Belarusian disinformation campaign, hacks news sites and the social media accounts of government officials to further Lukashenko’s “Political Prisoners in Belarus,” Viasna Human Rights Center, accessed January 13, 2022, https://prisoners.spring96.org/en. 65 “Belarus: Opposition Leader Tikhanovsky Jailed for 18 Years over Protests,” BBC News, December 14, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59650238. 64
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