Reports BELARUS - MARKET REPORT
came from Russia and 16 per cent from Poland.
Political protests also deterred visitors. Tens of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets in Minsk in August 2020 after President Lukashenko won 80 per cent of the votes during the elections.
Te people cited ballot rigging and demanded the resignation of Lukashenko, whose regime faced its biggest crisis since he came into power over 27 years ago.
However, Lukashenko’s regime is backed by an armed police force of over 110,000 and a background of motivated supporters. With this back-up he was able to face down the mass protests. Lukashenko even appeared armed with an automatic rifle threatening to shoot protestors himself if necessary.
President Lukashenko is the country’s first and, to date, only directly elected President who has held office since 1994. At the time, the country craved a new leader after the collapse of communism. He consolidates his power through authoritarian means and a centralised economic system, whilst there are government restrictions on political and civil rights and freedom of speech and press.
After being elected in 1994 the next election, in 1999, was extended by Lukashenko to 2001, via a referendum. A 2004 referendum ended presidential term limits and allowed the
P68 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA
President to run and win a third election in 2006, fourth in 2010, fifth in 2015 and sixth in 2020. Te next election is due in 2025. After the protests last year, he has since continued to wage a campaign of violence and repression against his opponents.
Most recently, Lukashenko hit the headlines over the arrest of dissident journalist Roman Protasevich who was flying from Greece to Lithuania with RyanAir when the plane on which they were travelling was forced to land in Minsk following a fake bomb scare.
Protasevich and friend Stepan Putilo co- founded the opposition Nexta channel on Telegram, a secure messaging app the channel used for organising street protests. Te authorities have cracked down hard on independent media and blocked an estimated 70 websites during the 2020 anti-government protests.
Te Nexta channel has around two million subscribers and is based in Poland working closely with Belarusian dissidents in Lithuania. Like many activists, including the main opposition leader who fought against Lukashenko in the last election, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, live outside of Belarus in neighbouring Poland or Lithuania.
Tikhanovskaya’s husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, had initially announced his intention to run for the Presidential election in May 2020 but was
strangely arrested two days later. In response his wife ran despite receiving threats that her children would be taken away. She was forced to send her children abroad.
Protasevich also left Belarus in 2019 and applied for Polish citizenship early last year.
Tikhanovskaya believes he is being tortured and has called for tougher sanctions against Belarus where the situation remains turbulent to say the least. Tis latest incident could have a huge impact on Belarus’ large casino industry as the Ukraine and Lithuania barred flights flying across Belarusian airspace, whilst the EU banned Belarusian carriers from using EU airspace and vice versa.
Te most recent scandal broke out at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was spirited out of the Olympic village by Belarusian sports officials who tried to deport her for criticising the national team. Te athlete refused to board a flight back to Belarus and is seeking asylum in Poland, with the saga once again drawing the world’s attention to the authoritarian tactics of the Lukashenko regime.
Unlike Putin, who restricted casinos to five designated gambling zones (see Russia market report June 2021), President Lukashenko has embraced gambling and the revenues it generates for the economy. As such, the Belarus casinos target international players, especially those arriving from Russia, China and Turkey.
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