Belarus Rises Up

Citizens packed the streets to demand that President Alexander Lukashenko step down.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has run the formerly Soviet country since 1994, but his latest victory, following a Potemkin election on August 9, may be the beginning of the end for the man European media often call "Europe's last dictator." Within days of the vote, formerly loyal factory workers refused to allow him to speak, employees of state-run media walked off the job, and citizens packed the streets to demand Lukashenko step down.