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Belarus' Authoritarian Leader Visits Foes in Prison

Associated Press

   KYIV, UKRAINE - Belarus' authoritarian president on Saturday visited a
   prison to talk to opposition activists who have been jailed for
   challenging his reelection, which was widely seen as having been
   manipulated and triggered two months of protests.

   President Alexander Lukashenko spent more than four hours talking to
   his jailed political foes at the Minsk prison that belongs to Belarus'
   State Security Committee, which still goes under its Soviet-era name,
   KGB.

   Lukashenko's office said that "the goal of the president was to hear
   everyone's opinion." Among 11 jailed activists who attended the meeting
   were several members of the opposition's Coordination Council and
   Viktor Babariko, the former head of a major Russia-owned bank. Babariko
   aspired to challenge Lukashenko but was barred from the race and
   remains in jail since his arrest in May on charges he dismissed as
   political.

   Lukashenko's landslide reelection in the Aug. 9 vote was widely seen as
   having been manipulated amid widespread public frustration with the
   Belarusian leader's 26-year authoritarian rule, his cavalier response
   to the coronavirus pandemic and the deteriorating economy.

   Crackdown stirs outrage

   A violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in the first days after
   the vote, in which thousands were arrested and hundreds were beaten by
   police, provoked international outrage and helped swell protesters'
   ranks.

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