After two years of arrests and persecution against dissidents in Belarus, Alexander Lukashenka’s regime is looking for new ways of dealing with the fallout of the post-election protests that shook the country in 2020 and 2021.
On 5 January, Lukashenka signed a new law into effect: it allows the authorities to revoke Belarusian citizenship from people outside the country who “have lost their legal connection” with the Belarusian state.
“Are these people worthy of being citizens of Belarus if they fled from their native country and actually severed ties with it?” Lukashenka asked in September 2022.
