Belarus: At the Heart of Europe’s Last Dictatorship

Belarus, a former Soviet Union republic, is the last dictatorship in Europe. Over recent weeks, the country has served as Russia’s rear base for its attack on Ukraine. Its president, Alexander Lukashenko, ally and accomplice of Vladimir Putin, seems even prepared to commit his own troops alongside Russian soldiers to take Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Exceptionally, teams from Enquête Exclusive bring you an exclusive plunge into this little-known country that, since its independence in 1994, has consistently shaken the international order. On May 23 last year, Belarus hijacked a commercial airliner in the open skies to capture an opposition journalist. Last autumn, it triggered a migration crisis when it threatened to open its border with Poland to hundreds of thousands of refugees. Today, this totalitarian state is completed closed to the Western world. The press is muzzled, the opposition hounded and gagged, freedoms shackled by an inflexible power. Several days before the invasion