Belarus Holds Constitutional Vote as Crisis in Ukraine Rages

[Wicked Blue]

Voice Of America News

KYIV — Belarusians cast ballots Sunday in a constitutional referendum that the country's authoritarian leader called to cement his 27-year old grip on power, even as he offers the country's territory to his ally Russia to invade Ukraine.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has edged even closer to Russia amid crippling Western sanctions over his crackdown on domestic protests, said he was confident that Belarusians will support a set of constitutional amendments that would allow him to stay in power until 2035.

The revised main law also sheds Belarus' neutral status, opening the way for stronger military cooperation with Russia, which deployed forces to Belarusian territory under the pretext of military drills and then sent them rolling into Ukraine as part of the invasion that began Thursday.

Some of those forces quickly closed in on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, located just 75 kilometers (less than 50 miles) south of the border.

https://www.voanews.com/a/belarus-holds-constitutional-vote-as-crisis-in-ukraine-rages-/6461639.html

[BootinUp]

1. Donald secretly thinks Lukashenko is a genius. nt

[orwell]

2. Nothing Authoritarian here...

...in "knowing" how the vote will turn out.

Sounds totally legit. This is the Drumpfucklicans wet dream - Dear Leader in power for decades at a clip.

Real democracy is so messy. After all if you let ALL the people vote, they might actually kick your sorry ass out!

Move along citizen, nothing to see here...

[TheBlackAdder]

3. If Putin takes Ukraine, Belarus is in the very near future.

[OnDoutside]

5. He doesn't need to, they're already in Putin's pocket. It would be the

Baltic countries next.

[TheBlackAdder]

6. Yeah, but sooner or later he'd want to consolidate power. It would just be a matter of time.

.

Belarus might think they are helping Putin or staving off a future overthrow, but it's coming one day.

.

[OnDoutside]

4. The EU need to warn Belarus that they will suffer the same economic

sanctions as Russia if they escalate their involvement.

[hippywife]

7. The EU Commission has already announced sanctions

this morning against both Belarus and the portion of Ukraine controlled by Yushchenko, as well as stricter sanctions against Russia:

Link to tweet

[OnDoutside]

9. Thanks, I had not seen that.

[crickets]

12. The US has responded with sanctions for Belarus as well.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0607

February 24, 2022
WASHINGTON — As part of the United States’ serious and expansive response to Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning 24 Belarusian individuals and entities due to Belarus’s support for, and facilitation of, the invasion. Today’s action focuses on Belarus’s defense sector and financial institutions, two areas in which Belarus has especially close ties to Russia. Belarus has become increasingly reliant on Russia for economic, political, and military support in recent years as the regime has clung to power following the fraudulent August 2020 presidential election.

Treasury’s Russia-related actions will also have significant downstream effects in Belarus. The Belarusian economy is highly dependent on key Russian financial institutions and their subsidiaries, including Public Joint Stock Company Sberbank of Russia (Sberbank), VTB Bank Public Joint Stock Company (VTB), and State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs Vnesheconombank (VEB). Restrictions against Sberbank, VTB, and VEB, combined with the measures against Belarusian banks, target nearly one-fifth of the country’s entire financial sector.

“Having already sacrificed its legitimacy to suppress the democratic aspirations of the Belarusian people, the Lukashenka regime is now jeopardizing Belarus’s sovereignty by supporting Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “Treasury continues to disrupt Belarus’s military and financial capabilities through targeted sanctions. Further, due to the interconnectedness between the two countries, the actions Treasury took against Russia today will also impose severe economic pain on the Lukashenka regime.”

Today’s actions follow five previous Belarus-related sanctions tranches by the United States and its allies in response to the degradation of democracy in Belarus. The Lukashenka regime has continued to erode democracy in Belarus and has become increasingly subservient to Russia in the process. Proposed amendments to the Belarusian constitution will exacerbate that trend and will pave the way for increased Russian influence in Minsk.

[Wingus Dingus]

8. Need to isolate and punish Belarus leaders as much as Russia--

force them to peel away. Although the poor people of Belarus have been trying to get rid of that clown.

[hippywife]

10. See the link in my post #7. nt

[Wingus Dingus]

11. Good!