” ““Most Belarusian people are not self-aware; Stalinism has deprived them of their identity, but the protests of these days show there’s not just apathy and that the influence of what happened in Georgia and Ukraine is beginning to be felt, although shyly”. This was said to Sir, in an interview which will be online from tonight at old.agensir.it, by father Claude Robinet of the Vatican Radio Station, as he commented the climate of the country in which, four days after the elections of Sunday March 19th, which reappointed Aleksander Lukashenko president, the protests of the opponents are going on, as they accuse the leadership of electoral fraud, while the opposition has proclaimed a big national demonstration due next Saturday March 25th to ask to go back to the polls. Father Robinet speaks of “rigged elections”, but still feels that the fact that, despite some protesters were arrested, “the protests have not been repressed by the police yet”, is a “good sign”. The priest says he is perplexed about the economic penalties that have been threatened by the EU, “which will make these people’ living conditions even harder”, but gives a positive judgement of “the media coverage the West is giving to the matter” and wishes “the matter will stay in the limelight even in the next few days and the media will keep talking about it”.
