4 ms·

Not the time for what-about. Why is it worth noting?

• agd 5y ago
  I don’t see this as a whatabout. It’s a similar case that I’m sure Belarus and Russia will point to. It exposes the hypocrisy in the statements coming from our governments right now.
• paganel 5y ago
  Because in that case nothing happened, even though we expect better from established democracies compared to the dictatorship from Belarus. And most of us live in those established democracies and not in Belarus, hence what happened back then was even more f/cked up.
  • 8fGTBjZxBcHq 5y ago
    We expect "better" from democracies largely because they have more sophisticated and effective ways to defang troubling journalists. You don't really need to murder or imprison them when you can just make it so no one trusts them or they can't find an audience. That said I do think Belarus fucked up here evaluating by their own best interests. Having an open dictatorship in Europe has always made a lot of people uncomfortable but was tolerated as long as they didn't draw too much attention to it or do any scary shit to outsiders. Here they kinda did both. Would not surprise me if this ends up being a huge problem for them long-term.
• pydry 5y ago
  It helps Lukashenko win the domestic propaganda war. The West is trying to present itself as a viable alternative to Russia to Belarussian people. The opposition politicians he is attacking largely support leaning westwards. How do they criticize this without appearing hypocritical? It's very hard. If the West tries to punish Belarus with sanctions that hurt the ordinary Belarussian it will likely look even worse. I can't actually think of a scenario here where Lukashenko doesn't win something.