Europe's last czar

- They do not even believe that they can beat Lukashenko, the president himself told the Russian TV channel NTV last week. Lukashenko is not alone in saying just that. The opposition's main candidate, Aleksander Milinkevich, believes that Lukashenko will get 80 percent of the vote in the presidential election on March 19. Without counting.

- They do not even have to wait until the election is over. They have already decided that this will be the result, Milinkevich told hundreds of supporters in the town of Baranovich last week.

The President of Belarus seems more invulnerable than ever before. He has been in power since 1994 and nothing indicates that he will not be sitting for a third term.

The latest newspaper, which is not controlled by the Belarusian president, Narodnaja Volja (the will of the People), is now being sent out in envelopes after all newsstands have been banned from selling it. All television and radio stations are owned or controlled by the state and their news broadcast consists solely of praise from the 51-year-old leader. The majority of print media is heavily censored.

On 6 March, the trial against the opposition candidate and the academic started, Aleksander Kozulin. He is accused of destroying a picture of President Lukashenko. Four days earlier he was beaten up and arrested by the police during a party meeting.

There is also no doubt about who Vladimir Putin supports. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov told Lukashenko last week that Putin is convinced that the Belarusian people came to make "the right choice". According to Russian telegram agency Itar-Tass, Lukashenko responded that there was no reason to worry.

- It's calm and quiet here. As always, said the Belarusian president.

Next week is ready for another chapter in Europe's "last dictatorship".