Belarus's thorny election

"The current situation in Belarus is little different to that in Poland or Czechoslovakia back in the 1960s and 1970s, and exactly like then, it seems desperate and hopeless," write Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa, former heads of state of the Czech Republic and Poland respectively, in a joint commentary. However, they go on to paint a rosier picture for Belarus: "In the long term Lukashenko's authoritarian regime will not be able to stand up to the nation's growing self-confidence. If the European Union gives this movement effective backing, the last non-democratic regime in the region will collapse as quickly as the communist regimes once did."

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