Bonum Certa Men Certa

From Belarus With Love — Part IX: The End of “Peaceful Coexistence”?

Series parts:

  1. From Belarus With Love — Part I: Schizophrenic EPO Policy
  2. From Belarus With Love — Part II: “Techwashing” an Autocratic Regime?
  3. From Belarus With Love — Part III: Apps From the Dictatorship
  4. From Belarus With Love — Part IV: “Software from Minsk” via Gilching and Rijswijk
  5. From Belarus With Love — Part V: From Start-Up to Success Story...
  6. From Belarus With Love — Part VI: “Big Daddy” Hammers the Opposition...
  7. From Belarus With Love — Part VII: The Post-Election Crackdown
  8. From Belarus With Love — Part VIII: “Seoul in the Centre of Pyongyang”
  9. YOU ARE HERE ☞ The End of “Peaceful Coexistence”


Belarusian IT protest banner
The Belarusian IT sector played a significant role in the events of 2020 which ended its "peaceful co-existence" with the country's autocratic political establishment.



Summary: We continue to explore the affairs of the Belarusian 'science park' in Minsk, where EPO President Benoît Battistelli sent parts of the EPO (while António Campinos pretends that the EPO is cutting relations with Belarus)

Sor many years, there was a tacit unwritten contract between the Lukashenko regime and the burgeoning Belarus IT sector: "We do not touch you, and you do not meddle in politics".



However, this "gentlemen's agreement" fell apart in 2020 as the IT sector began to play a key role in the collective efforts to challenge "Batka" and his autocratic form of government.

Things kicked off in May 2020 with an announcement by the founder and former head of the HTP, Valery Tsepkalo, that he intended to run for President. IT specialists played an active role in Tsepkalo’s campaign and also in the campaign of another aspiring candidate, Viktar Babaryka.

Valery-Tsepkalo
Valery Tsepkalo founder and former head of the HPT tried to stand against Lukashenko in the 2020 Presidential elections but his nomination was rejected and he was forced into exile.



During the run-up to the election, concerns about voting falsification by the government-controlled Central Electoral Commission inspired a team of 40 volunteers led by Pavel Liber to develop the online platform Golos ("Voice") as an alternative vote-counting mechanism.

"Liber, a senior director of software engineering at EPAM Systems, had to leave Belarus for Ukraine for his own safety and a number of Golos volunteers ended up in detention."Together with similar initiatives, such as Babaryka's Chesniya Lyudzi (Honest People) and Zubr ("Bison"), these activists were able to expose serious discrepancies in the official results and show that Lukashenko's claimed 80% share of the vote was grossly inflated. Liber, a senior director of software engineering at EPAM Systems, had to leave Belarus for Ukraine for his own safety and a number of Golos volunteers ended up in detention.

Pavel Liber
Pavel Liber, a senior director of software engineering at EPAM Systems, led the team of volunteers behind the online platform Golos which helped to expose serious irregularities in the 2020 Presidential election.



After the election, many IT specialists took part in the mass protest actions. As independent experts, they were not afraid of losing their jobs. They were protesting, not for a crust of bread, but in the name of civil rights and European values and in opposition to the authoritarian state which had deprived them of a genuine right to vote.

"They were protesting, not for a crust of bread, but in the name of civil rights and European values and in opposition to the authoritarian state which had deprived them of a genuine right to vote."In response, the regime started shutting off the Internet every day at around 7p.m. as the street protests started in order to prevent the crowds from co-ordinating via social media.

As the authorities resorted to brute force measures to crush the protests, some 300 CEOs of IT companies based in Belarus threatened to move their business out of the country if the government did not put a stop to the violent repression and allow for a new election to be held.

The list included CEOs who had been previously been reliably loyal to the regime, such as Arkady Dobkin, the CEO of EPAM Systems, and Viktor Prokopenya, the founder of software development company Viaden Media.

Meanwhile, many IT specialists volunteered for the various solidarity funds set up to help the victims of state violence. A number of solidarity actions were initiated by individuals based at the HTP.

For example, Mikita Mikado, the co-founder of PandaDoc, set up an initiative called ProtectBelarus offering financial aid and re-training in the tech industry for police officers who had decided to disobey orders to beat and torture protesters. In retaliation, the company offices of PandaDoc in Minsk were raided by the police and a number of senior employees were arrested.

"However, the unrestrained brutality of the post-election crackdown meant that the efforts to oust Lukashenko were ultimately doomed to failure. The opposition was crushed and its leaders either ended up in jail or in exile abroad."Over at EPAM Systems, the senior vice-president, Makism Bogretsov, went on leave from the company to join the National Coordination Council, an opposition structure created by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and her supporters to coordinate a peaceful transfer of power.

For a brief moment, some foreign observers speculated that Lukashenko could be facing a "CeauÅŸescu moment", and that he might end up being deposed like the former Romanian tyrant who was toppled amid intense civil unrest back in 1989.

However, the unrestrained brutality of the post-election crackdown meant that the efforts to oust Lukashenko were ultimately doomed to failure. The opposition was crushed and its leaders either ended up in jail or in exile abroad.

In the next part, we will see how the post-election crackdown impacted on the IT sector and led to a massive "brain drain" to other countries in the region.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Myth of an Aging (or Dying) GNU/Linux Leadership
Self-fulfilling prophecies as a tactic?
There's Nothing "Funny" About Attacking Free Speech and Software Freedom
persistent focus on the principal issues is very important
GNU/Linux Adoption in Africa, a Passageway Towards Freedom From Neo-Colonialism
Digi(tal)-Colonialism and/or Techolonialism are a thing. Can Africa flee the trap?
 
Shooting the Messenger Using Bribes and Secrecy Bonds
We seem to live in a world where accountability for the rich and well-connected barely exists anymore
Links 06/12/2023: Many More December Layoffs
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 05, 2023
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 05, 2023
PipeWire 1.0: Linux audio comes of age
Once upon a time, serious audio users like musicians and audio engineers had real trouble with Linux
This is How 'Linux' Foundation Presents Linux to the World
Right now it even picks Windows over Linux in some cases
Links 05/12/2023: Microsoft's Chatbot as Health Hazard
Links for the day
Professor Eben Moglen Explained How Software Patent Threats Had Changed Around 2014 (Alice Case) and What Would Happen Till 2025
clip aged reasonably well
CNN Contributes to Demolition of the Open Web
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Eben Moglen on Encryption and Anonymity
The alternate net we need, and how we can build it ourselves
Yet More Microsofters Inside the Board of Mozilla (Which Has Just Outsourced Firefox Development to Microsoft's Proprietary Prison)
Do you want a browser controlled (and spied on) by such a company?
IRC Proceedings: Monday, December 04, 2023
IRC logs for Monday, December 04, 2023
GNU/Linux Now Exceeds 3.6% Market Share on Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
things have changed for Windows in China
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 05/12/2023: Debt Brake in Germany and Layoffs at Condé Nast (Reddit, Wired, Ars Technica and More)
Links for the day
[Meme] Social Control Media Giants Shaping Debates on BSDs and GNU/Linux
listening to random people in Social Control Media
Reddit (Condé Nast), Which Has Another Round of Layoffs This Month, Incited People Against GNU/Linux Users (Divide and Rule, It's 2003 All Over Again!)
Does somebody (perhaps a third party) fan the flames?
Who Will Hold the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Accountable for Taking Bribes From Microsoft and Selling Out to Enable/Endorse Massive Copyright Infringement?
it does Microsoft advocacy
Using Gemini to Moan About Linux and Spread .NET
Toxic, acidic post in Gemini
Web Monopolist, Google, 'Pulls a Microsoft' by Hijacking/Overriding the Name of Competitor and Alternative to the Web
Gulag 'hijacking' 'Gemini'
Links 04/12/2023: Mass Layoffs at Spotify (Debt, Losses, Bubble) Once Again
Links for the day
ChatGPT Hype/Vapourware (and 'Bing') Has Failed, Google Maintains Dominance in Search
a growing mountain of debt and crises
[Meme] Every Real Paralegal Knows This
how copyright law works
Forging IRC Logs and Impersonating Professors: the Lengths to Which Anti-Free Software Militants Would Go
Impersonating people in IRC, too
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, December 03, 2023
IRC logs for Sunday, December 03, 2023
GNU/Linux Popularity Surging, So Why Did MakeUseOf Quit Covering It About 10 Days Ago?
It's particularly sad because some of the best articles about GNU/Linux came from that site, both technical articles and advocacy-centric pieces
Links 04/12/2023: COVID-19 Data Misused Again, Anti-Consumerism Activism
Links for the day