Belarussian Roulette by Andrea Gjestvang (25 images)

In Belarus - Europe's last dictatorship - impatience is about to break down
President Lukashenko's thick walls. What future does the young generation - the nation's most valuable asset - face?

BELARUS/MINSK: In landlocked Belarus ordinary citizens are waking up with a hangover - but it's not caused by cheap vodka. The post-communistic hope of prosperity, equality and stability through state-owned companies and a controlled market has diminished along with inflation, salary...
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In Belarus - Europe's last dictatorship - impatience is about to break down
President Lukashenko's thick walls. What future does the young generation - the nation's most valuable asset - face?

BELARUS/MINSK: In landlocked Belarus ordinary citizens are waking up with a hangover - but it's not caused by cheap vodka. The post-communistic hope of prosperity, equality and stability through state-owned companies and a controlled market has diminished along with inflation, salary cuts, and an ice-cold relationship to Russia and the EU.

Since the election in December 2010, when Alexander Lukashenko won a controversial victory, the president must not only combat the country's financial problems and reheat the ice-cold relationship with Russia and the EU but he must also deal with the younger generation of Belarus as his main enemy.
A growing number of well-educated, young people don't see a future in the heavy controlled regime, and flee the country to search for a better life abroad, or try to fight the regime at home.

-Living in Belarus is like floating in a lake where there are no waves, no movement at all. I just need to get out, Anastasia Blazhevich, a newly graduated architect, said.

- KGB put me in jail, my father lost his job and my fiancée was arrested - just because we are telling the truth about the regime. People are about to have enough, Nasta Palazhanka(20), a political activist, said.
Palazhanka received the International Woman of Courage Award from Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State.
Blazhevich and Palazhanka represent the new voice for a change in Belarus - a voice that is getting stronger but is rare or even none existing in the news. Lukashenkos regime is running out of options and the dissatisfaction among ordinary Belarusians is growing.
Our story provides a rare insight in the young generation of Belarusians.

Photos: Andrea Gjestvang/Moment

Text: Alexander Urrang Hauge
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