Lukashenko is preparing for the next term

At the last meeting of the UN General Assembly, an 11-year-old boy was in the same room with world leaders. He sat at a table with a sign “Belarus”, was smartly dressed and well-haired.

The recent visit of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to New York indicates that Belarus is emerging from the isolation of recent years. The president, along with his son Kolya, freely posed for the cameras at the UN site. It caused a lot of criticism in social networks.

On the eve of the Sunday elections, everyone expects Lukashenko to receive the fifth presidential term.

But, despite the external signs of a thaw, Lukashenko made it clear that he still controls everything. And even ready to predict how many people will vote for him.

“If the president is strong, as you have always supported me - 80%!” he said on Tuesday.

Although Lukashenko enjoys the support of the majority of the population, monopolizes state resources and has no real opposition, experts say that he is likely to continue falsifying the results.

“This is a sport. If the president of Kazakhstan got 90%, he [Lukashenko] cannot get 50%,” said Denis Melyantsov, an analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies. “Remember when Putin went to Tuva and caught a 20-kilogram pike? The next day, Lukashenko said: “It’s nothing. I went to Pripyat and caught a catfish - it weighed 50 kg!

Unlike the protests after the 2010 election of the year, few are now ready to take to the streets. Many Belarusians are afraid of the example of Ukraine. And the opposition leaders, who were behind bars, believe that the West has betrayed them.

“In Ukraine now people are very free – free from work, free from decent wages; soon they will be free from free healthcare. If this is political freedom, then it is the opposite for me. This is disorder, anarchy and chaos,” said Sergei Kizima, head of the international relations department at the Academy of Public Administration at Minsk University and adviser to Lukashenko.

He believes that the current Belarusian president is the only peacemaker who knows what to do in the country.

“Why should we be surprised when people vote for him?”

Even fewer people are ready to protest after watching Russian and Belarusian TV reports about the crisis in Ukraine. “If you are standing on a street with a red-white flag,“ a symbol of the opposition movement ”and collecting signatures, people will go through and ask if you want to be here like in Ukraine?” Says Artem Shraibman, a writer for tut.by, the most popular site of Belarus.

Previously, the "Forum" reported that the European Union was going to lift sanctions against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his entourage. It is reported by Reuters, citing unnamed diplomatic sources. No official confirmation of this information has been received.

According to sources, Reuters, the decision to lift restrictions will be made next week. Visa and financial penalties will be lifted by approximately 200 people. Regarding Lukashenko, who was called the “last dictator of Europe”, the ban on entry to European countries will be lifted.

The lifting of the sanctions is associated with the decision of Lukashenko to pardon six political prisoners, including one of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition, the former presidential candidate Nikolai Statkevich, who was convicted for organizing mass riots. The pardon of the opposition was announced on August 22.

Elections in Belarus will be held 11 October 2015 of the year. Before that, Alexander Lukashenko won in all presidential elections in the country. In 2010, he scored more than 79% of votes, in 2006-m - 83%, in 2001-m - about 75%. In 1994, he was unable to win the first round, gaining less than 50% of votes. In the second round, he competed with Vyacheslav Kebich and won by a large margin.

17 October 2004 was held a referendum on amending the Constitution, lifting the limit on the number of presidential terms. These changes supported 77,3% of voters.