It has now been two months since the outbreak of massive street demonstrations in Belarus in the wake of the massively falsified Aug. 9 presidential election. The initial government strategy of simply waiting out the protests has failed. The democratic opposition has the support of a majority of the population and demonstrates a tireless capacity to put at least 100,000 protesters onto the streets of Minsk every single Sunday.
The long stalemate between the government and the opposition concluded, however, as the long-standing autocrat Aleksandr Lukashenko shifted tactics over the weekend. After arranging a secret inauguration for his sixth term as president, Lukashenko appeared in person at a KGB prison to engage in roundtable negotiations along with a group of political prisoners who included his rival, the banker Viktar Babaryka. It’s a scene that’s familiar from 1989, when wrong-footed communist leaders found themselves at the negotiating table with people they’d arrested in the past. It may be the start of a transition process that allows a new start for the country—or it may be merely a case of divide and rule.
