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Belarus Leader Warns of Violence Ahead of Weekend Presidential Elections

Charles Maynes

   MOSCOW - In a winding state of the nation speech before lawmakers on
   Tuesday, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko warned that political
   enemies at home and abroad were planning violence ahead of the
   country's upcoming presidential elections -- and vowed his government
   would not tolerate a street revolution.'¯'¯

   "So far there is no open warfare, no shooting, the trigger has not yet
   been pulled. But an attempt to organize a massacre in the center of
   Minsk is already obvious," said Lukashenko, 65, the only president
   Belarusians have known ever since the nation of 9.5 million gained
   independence following the breakup of the Soviet Union.'¯

   Lukashenko's speech came just days before a Sunday vote that looks to
   be the most serious challenge to a more than quarter century rule that
   has earned the Belarusian leader the undesirable nickname "the last
   dictator of Europe."'¯'¯

   Now seeking a sixth straight term in office, the Belarusian leader has
   run into an unexpectedly strong opponent in Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a
   political novice who stepped in as a placeholder candidate after
   authorities arrested her husband -- the political blogger Sergei
   Tikhanovsky -- on trumped up charges she says were intended to keep him
   out of the election.'¯'¯

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