Belarus' authoritarian leader on Thursday accused unspecified foreign forces of trying to destabilize the ex-Soviet nation through political and economic pressure.
President Alexander Lukashenko didn’t name any names, but made it clear he was referring to the European Union and the United States, which have slapped Belarus with travel and economic sanctions after December’s presidential elections harshly criticized by international observers.
A massive government crackdown on the opposition, a spiraling currency crisis and a subway bombing last week have fomented a sense of rising panic and disorder in this former Soviet nation of 10 million people, which is often dubbed the last dictatorship in Europe.
"Belarus has come under massive pressure," Lukashenko, who has run the country for 17 years, told the parliament. "First came political threats of rejection of the presidential election results, lists of people barred from travel, economic sanctions, then they stirred up agitation and panic on the currency market and, finally there was ‘dancing on the bones’ after the subway incident. These are all links of one chain."
He has angrily rejected allegations of some bloggers that authorities may have staged the April 11 subway explosion that killed 13 and wounded 200 to use it as a pretext to toughen crackdown on dissent and to distract the Belarusians from the country’s rapidly worsening economic situation.
Belarus’ quasi-Soviet state-controlled economy has taken a nosedive recently, with hard currency reserves running critically low and people lining up at currency exchange booths to buy dwindling amounts of foreign currency. Earlier this week, authorities have allowed a free float of the national currency in trading between banks, effectively permitting its devaluation.
Lukashenko previously had ordered prosecutors to interrogate opposition activists over the subway explosion, but he took a step back Thursday, saying authorities so far haven’t found any political connections to the blast.
Authorities have arrested five suspects in connection with the blast, including a man in his mid-20s accused of placing the bomb on the platform of Minsk’s busiest subway station. Investigators haven’t said who ordered the bombing.
Fears have grown over the days since the bombing that it is being used as a pretext to stamp out the last vestiges of political pluralism and dissent.
Authorities already have pledged to "bring order" to the Internet, one of the last outposts of free speech, and issued two reprimands to two leading independent newspapers for their coverage of the bombing.
