The events of March 19 were no great surprise. Nor was the entire run-up to the elections. The result was exactly as predicted. And this result means defeat. Our defeat. My own personal defeat, in that I failed to disseminate the Movement’s ideas widely enough – ideas, which, if realised could have produced a very different outcome.

In a way, March 19 2006 was the dying day of an epoch whose beginning had been marked by the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the velvet revolutions of 1989. The 17 years that saw the triumphant spread of democracy across Eastern Europe, originating in the capitals of the Vyshegrad Group, should have reached their conclusion in the capitals of the Transcaucasus. Minsk should have emerged successfully through the revolution of 1996. But instead of impeachments and the establishment of democracy in Belarus, there was a coup d’etat. At the time, many regarded this as no more than a disappointing historical misunderstanding, which would soon put itself right. (more…)