An understatement, given the scope of the events in the country where, today, a bomb blast, as well as the discovery of a second unexploded device in Minsk, took place. Observers, and the Belarusian opposition (anachronism-sounding, as they are not much of an opposition, nor have they ever been), are predicting more crackdowns as President Lukashenka begins pitting the blame on someone, emboldening his own claims that the outside world and internal fifth columns are out to destroy the country.
But Lukashenka is himself unnerved, it seems, and not solely because the concert he was attending was disrupted by these events. This BBC report cites "rumours," if nothing else, of discontent within secret police echelons, Lukashenka's political circle and other state elements that are brewing beneath the surface. Without a hint of irony, the report states: "Moreover, it happened on the very anniversary of the capital's liberation from Nazi occupation, near the impressive monument to WWII heroes. It could have hardly been more symbolic."
What is indisputable is that this is significant: Belarus long had the reputation, for better or worse, of being something of a sideshow to the Soviet Union and, later, a bastion of old-world and antiquated politics -- and this, of course, not solely coming from me. That bomb blasts have come to this country is telling and a signal that, in the end, everyone is a cohabitant of this insane planet, irrespective of ideology, dispositions or levels of democratic development.
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