Kremlin Helping Lukashenka Repress Belarusians By Including More Than 4,700 Of Them On Russian Wanted List – OpEd
By Paul Goble
Vladimir Putin has benefitted throughout his time as Russian president by the constant references in Russian and foreign media to Alyaksandr Lukashenka as “the last dictator in Europe,” an epithet which distracts attention from the fact that Putin is far more repressive than the Belarusian dictator.
But now there is new evidence that Putin is providing his fellow dictator with the kind of assistance that allows Lukashenka to repress his own people and remain in power. The Kremlin leader has put the name of more than 4700 Belarusians on Russia’s wanted list (mediazonaby.com/article/2025/04/09/wanted_again).
This means that these people will be sought not just by Belarusian siloviki in Belarus but by Russian ones in Russia and that the two force structures will now work hand in glove to repress those who oppose the Belarusian leader, something for which Putin must be held accountable.
That is an increase of more than 1200 over the last five months alone, Media.Zona reports; and Putin’s willingness shows just how far he is prepared to go to support his fellow dictator given that many of those added to the list have been identified by Belarusian activists and human rights organizers as victims of political persecution.
Until the very end of 2022, there were never more than a handful added in any one month. Then more than 200 were added in December of that first year of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine; and since then, the number of Belarusians on this list has increased often by 200 or more each month.
Those who continue to talk about Lukashenka as “the last dictator in Europe” should be disabused by this and recognize that he is one of several, including Vladimir Putin, who are working against democracy and human rights and deserve that description at least as much as Lukashenka.
