This week marked the 100th day of protests in Belarus – we must not avert our attention

The horror show in Belarus is being overshadowed by news from the US but, writes Oliver Carroll, for the 9 million people of the small former Soviet state, it is every bit as deserving of our attention

Demonstrators in ‘The Square of Changes’ in Minsk (AFP via Getty Images)

Alexander Lukashenko has a history of being helped by world events.

In 2001, controversy over a rigged election was forgotten when, two days later, a Boeing 767 hit one of two twin towers. In 2006, following an equally suspicious vote, the Belarusian autocrat was ostracised, but within the year came Vladimir Putin’s infamous Munich speech declaring a new era of hostility, and the west began courting Lukashenko again.  

And 2010 saw another rigged election, another crackdown and more isolation – but that was cancelled out by Russian adventures in Ukraine in 2014.