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Author: Aliaksandr Papko

From the classrooms to the farms

In Belarus, the rise in tuition-free education is most unlikely to be the result of a renewed commitment to social justice on the part of the country’s authoritarian leadership. More plausibly, it reflects an effort to forcibly fill vacant positions in the public sector, which has been increasingly caused by the large emigration of working-age people from Belarus.

December 7, 2025 - Aliaksandr Papko

The re-Sovietisation of Belarus

The nature of the crisis in Belarus is the same as in other countries of the region, with the collapse of old Soviet structures in the economy, society, politics and ideology. Alyaksandr Lukashenka does not understand the urbanised modern society he is trying to rule. In order to re-establish control, his regime is trying to move the society backwards. Repressions will be extremely costly for Belarusian society, but Lukashenka’s goal is unlikely to be achieved.

The past two years saw growing pressure from western sanctions on the Belarusian regime. Each move Alyaksandr Lukashenka took since 2020 has further limited his room for manoeuvre. After each of his decisions – the brutal crackdown of the 2020 protests; the repressions that followed; the grounding of the Ryanair plane; and finally, the support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine – a new wave of sanctions was introduced.

December 7, 2022 - Aliaksandr Papko Kacper Wańczyk

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