Between a rock and a hard place, longtime Belarusian dictatorship seems to be on verge of change | Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

Even before writer Svetlana Alexievich became the first Belarusian to snag the Nobel Prize for literature on Thursday, there were some faint signs of change for her closed country. Recently, Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko — despised for crushing dissent and sidelining the political opposition — has played a valuable host for international negotiations and freed political…

Minsk, Belarus – Belarussians headed to the polls on Sunday in elections many predict will see strongman President Alexander Lukashenko easily re-elected to a fifth term. Compared to the elections of December 2010 – which ended in the arrest of opposition leaders and political activists as widespread protests flared against what many called a rigged vote…