- The piece discusses the autocratic leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and the increasing anger and protests against him.
- Lukashenko has faced criticism for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economy.
- He has been in power for nearly three decades and has described himself as the last dictator in Europe.
- Lukashenko's mishandling of COVID and his authoritarian actions, such as censoring the media, have fueled the anger of Belarusians.
- The piece highlights an incident where Lukashenko ordered a fighter jet to intercept a commercial plane to arrest a dissident journalist.
- Lukashenko's rise to power in the 90s was initially popular, but he quickly became known for corruption and suppressing the media.
- He has made controversial statements, including praising Hitler and expressing anti-Semitic views.
- Lukashenko has used referendums to extend his term and increase his powers.
- Outside observers have deemed his election victories as illegitimate.

- Lukashenko's last 5 election victories have been deemed illegitimate by outside observer groups.
- Lukashenko has suppressed dissent and punished acts of civil disobedience, such as toy protests and parachuting teddy bears with pro-democracy messages.
- Dissidents in Belarus face horrific treatment, including disappearances, suspected murders, and allegations of torture.
- Lukashenko's regime has increased arrests of human rights activists and journalists, raided their offices and homes, and sentenced opposition leaders to prison.
- Lukashenko's grip on power is slipping as trust in him decreases and even state TV presenters protest against him.
- Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, believed to be the real winner of the last election, has fled the country but continues to lead the pro-democracy movement.
- Sanctions have been imposed by the EU, US, UK, and Canada, but they may not be enough to end Lukashenko's reign.
- Reforming the constitution and ensuring free and fair elections are crucial for improving the situation in Belarus.
- Annoying Lukashenko through teddy bear sales is one small way to support the people of Belarus and organizations fighting for freedom and human rights.

John Oliver discusses the longtime leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and the many reasons his country’s citizens have not to like him.

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-♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ Our main story tonight concerns Belarus.

And I know you might be expecting me to play that game where I tell you that's not actually Belarus, it's somewhere else.

That game was supposed to encourage you to learn some basic geography.

And honestly, I started to get the sense that some of you just grew to enjoy being humiliated by it.

Which is why those particular people will be happy to know that that's not actually Belarus, that's Belarus.

♪ -Specifically, we'd like to talk about Belarus' president and autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, who has had quite a year.

In fact, you might have noticed stories about Belarus popping up with increasing regularity, especially since last August, when they had a highly contested election which made international headlines.

Thousands of people unleashing their fury in the capital city of Minsk and elsewhere also around the country.

Lukashenko, who has ruled for nearly 3 decades, has faced a wave of anger over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economy as well.

Despite that, official state-approved exit polls gave him an overwhelming majority of 80 percent.

They claimed Lukashenko won with 80 percent of the vote, which was immediately fishy for a couple of reasons.

1, the massive protests that followed, and 2, the idea that any man could still be popular after nearly 3 decades in the public eye.

I've only had this show for 8 years, and even I can barely stand the sight of me.

And Belarusians aren't just furious at Lukashenko for his handling of the coronavirus, although from the beginning of the pandemic, his mismanagement of it was incredibly reckless.

At first, he called the virus a psychosis and said it was treatable with vodka and saunas.

a crowded hockey game, he denied its existence.

Do you hear any Ebola, smell any measles, taste any AIDS in the air?

What is here is your fearless leader who's about to go and score a hat-trick for the Minsk midlife crises.

But Lukashenko's terrible handling of COVID is just the beginning here.

He's described himself as the last and only dictator in Europe, which is, in itself, just an amazing thing to say.

Bragging about being the last dictator is like bragging about being the last Radio Shack or the last person to make a movie with Harvey Weinstein.

And sadly, for some Belarusians, he's the only leader they've ever known.

So your whole life, you've lived under 1 president.

Especially since the person who's been in charge for that man's entire life is a hard-boiled egg with a mustache who calls himself a dictator and thinks COVID only exists if you can see it zooming around in a tiny little jet.

That process was from last September, and things have only escalated since then.

You may remember a Belarusian athlete refusing to return home during the Tokyo Olympics, and back in May, this happened.

This morning, Belarus is facing growing international protests and condemnation after the country's president, Alexander Lukashenko, sent a fighter jet to ground a commercial plane flying between 2 European capitals.

And with it, 26-year-old dissident journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend.

1 passenger says Roman pleaded, don't do this, they'll kill me.

The Ryanair crew replied, we have no choice.

Yeah, a journalist who was critical of the government briefly passed through Belarusian airspace on a commercial flight, so Lukashenko personally ordered a fighter jet to intercept it and force it to land.

Now, Belarusian authorities originally claimed that they did that because of an emailed bomb threat from Hamas, but records show that email was sent 24 minutes after they informed the pilot about the bomb threat.

Not to mention, it was sent from Ahmed Yelanov 1988 at protonmail.com with the subject line, -"Allahu Akbar," which is just impossibly lazy.

--LAUGHTER It's just 1 step above emailing from badguy6969 at yahoo.com with a subject line, terrorists, self-parentheses, like 9-11.

So given how much things seem to be spiraling in Belarus, we thought tonight it'd be worth giving you some context for what is happening over there and taking a look at exactly who Alexander Lukashenko is.

And let's start with the fact that he is the greatest president in the history of Belarus.

Specifically because he's the only president in the history of Belarus.

Lukashenko won the country's first free and fair election in 1994, 3 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, when he, a former manager of a state-owned farm, vowed to raise taxes on the rich and defeat corruption.

It sounded great, and he was genuinely popular at the time.

Just listen to a former AIDS-turned-critic recall how people reacted to Lukashenko at his rallies.

3,000 people who were listening to him, instead of leaving the stadium, moved towards him like an avalanche.

They were reaching out to him like believers to a relic, praying for God's grace.

Women were lifting up their children for Lukashenko to touch them.

Others were reaching out with books, newspapers, or even banknotes just to get his autograph.

Well, Lukashenko was no Michael Jackson, but this is what really happened.

Well, well, hold on there, because was he no Michael Jackson?

Lukashenko was immensely popular in the 90s, diehard fans packed stadiums to see him, and he eventually torpedoed his reputation because it turns out he was an absolute monster.

To be honest, I think Lukashenko fully earned that comparison.

And he still very much plays up his humble farm background through photo ops like this 1, where he's harvesting potatoes while dressed like Chef Boyardee at an orgy.

He once gave 4 bags of potatoes and a tub of lard to Vladimir Putin as a Christmas gift.

And when Steven Seagal visited Belarus, Lukashenko also gifted him produce.

With the Washington Post poetically writing at the time, There was no hesitation on Steven Seagal's face as he took a raw, freshly peeled carrot from the hands of the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, and bit into it with a satisfying chomp.

Which is just an elegant tapestry of words.

You don't even need a video to imagine what it was like to see Steven Seagal using his mouth bones to break off the tip of that rabbit hot dog, but you know what?

Look, no disrespect, no disrespect to Seagal classics like Under Siege, Hard to Kill, Above the Law, and probably something called Hunting the Fire or whatever.

But that is the greatest film Steven Seagal has ever made.

But for all Lukashenko's common man posturing, his promises to combat corruption quickly fell apart.

Just 5 months into his presidency, a deputy compiled an investigation into corruption in Parliament, which was said to have contained charges against various high-ranking officials.

But the government banned all press coverage of the report to the point where local newspapers that had planned to publish the results of it instead ended up publishing blank pages like these.

And that was just the beginning of a decades-long assault on the press.

Shortly afterward, Lukashenko replaced the editors-in-chief of 4 leading newspapers and took the national radio and television under strict control, creating an environment so hostile to independent journalism, Belarus is now considered the most dangerous country in Europe for members of the media, with members constantly subjected to violence, arbitrary detentions, interrogations, raids, and more.

And the control Lukashenko exerts over even small, petty details is incredible.

Is it true that you cannot film the back of Lukashenko's head?

Is it because he has a bald patch, or...?

Yeah, it's a kind of very weird haircut, so it's growing from 1 side.

He looks like he kind of grew his left sideburn into a rat tail and then shellacked it onto his bare scalp.

The answer to the question, is Lukashenko bald at this point, is a resounding, oh, I wish.

But Lukashenko's bizarre behavior goes well beyond censoring the media and force-feeding Steven Seagal raw vegetables.

Over the years, he's made statements like, better to be a dictator than gay, and not everything connected in Germany with the well-known Adolf Hitler was bad.

Really taking the phrase, playing devil's advocate a bit too literally.

And if you're thinking, okay, but who didn't accidentally praise Hitler in the 90s?

And second, just this summer, he said, the entire world grovels to the Jews, which is obviously awful.

Lukashenko treats anti-Semitism the way fashion treats low-rise bell-bottoms.

He keeps bringing it back, even when it was never acceptable at any point in history.

--LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE --Overall, it seems Lukashenko operates from the standard authoritarian playbook, and he's repeatedly worked to codify his power, using a controversial referendum in 1996 to extend his first term and dramatically increase his powers and weaken those of the legislature.

And then, using a second referendum to completely remove term limits in 2004.

At this point, outside observer groups have reported that none of his last 5 election victories have been legitimate.

And throughout his time as president, Lukashenko has clamped down hard on the slightest signs of dissent.

In 2012, 2 men staged toy protests with stuffed animals holding anti-Lukashenko slogans.

Objectively, the cutest display of civil disobedience that I have ever seen.

But, that wound up getting both of those men sentenced to 10 days in jail.

A sentence that in itself, actually inspired a follow-up protest.

In July, hundreds of teddy bears rained down on Belarus.

They wore parachutes and carried pro-democracy messages.

The man behind the prank is a marketing executive with a Swedish firm.

He took off from Lithuania in this tiny plane.

We should be dropping parachuting teddy bears from

Why did we even invent planes if we're not gonna use them to drop teddy bears out of the sky and instantly improve everybody's day?

I don't understand the society we've built for ourselves.

Unsurprisingly, Lukashenko tried to cover that incident up, which proved to be impossible due to, you know, the existence of the Internet.

So instead, he tried to save face by firing 2 generals, the head of the border service and the head of the Air Force.

But the thing is, even though protests like those can be whimsical, what happens to dissidents in Belarus is absolutely horrific.

Opposition figures have disappeared over the years, and some are suspected of being murdered by the state.

And there have been numerous allegations of political detainees being tortured, as this BBC journalist once tried to demonstrate in what I will say, is a pretty bold manner.

The opposition in Belarus say they were tortured by being forced to strip naked in freezing conditions.

So we go to a cold store in North London where the temperature is minus 24 Celsius.

So the guards forced the Prisoners to strip naked and stand in this position, spread eagles, and minus 20, there was snow outside.

In the jargon of torture, this is a stress position.

Quick question, and it actually has nothing to do with the prisoner torture.

You could have just told us the prisoners were forced to stand in the cold naked.

And we'd have been able to imagine what that looks like.

We really didn't need to see you standing there, cakes out, to get your very basic point.

And the thing is, that brutality has only escalated.

Recently, Lukashenko has increased the number of arrests of human rights activists and journalists, and police have raided their offices and homes.

Just this week, an opposition leader was sentenced by the state to 11 years in prison.

And even when dissidents managed to escape Belarus, they may not be safe.

A few weeks ago, an activist who'd fled to Ukraine went out for a run and was found hanged in a park.

And while that has not yet been officially confirmed as a murder, come on!

I'm not sure which species of trees are native to Ukraine, but I don't think any of them naturally have Belarusian dissidents hanging from them.

The point here is for nearly 3 decades now, Belarus has experienced a brutal cycle of oppression, in which Lukashenko wins elections that are neither free nor fair, locks up his political opponents, people take to the streets in protest, and he violently cracks down.

It is no wonder the Belarusian people seem to have had enough.

A leaked poll showed that only about a third of the population trusts Lukashenko, which is impressively low, considering, remember, he controls the national media.

And even there, his grip seems to be slipping, though.

Last year, presenters on a state TV morning show walked off and resigned, leaving viewers watching this.

♪ Что хочешь, скажи, получишь, держи, а-а-а.

That is both a brave act of protest by Belarusian broadcasters, and also...

You do get the sense Lukashenko may be starting to feel some pressure here, because when marchers likened him to a cockroach, and online polls showed him having only 3 percent support from his people instead of simply ignoring that.

really believe that the serving president has just 3 percent support?

Stop harassing and insulting us, calling me a mustached cockroach, et cetera.

I am still the president of this country.

In no country in the world are you allowed to insult people.

Your suit's too big, you suck at hockey, and whatever it is you do with your hair isn't fucking working.

---WOMAN CHEERS AND APPLAUDS I'm not in jail?

So, look, things are clearly bleak in Belarus, and Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, The woman widely believed to be the real winner of last year's election, and who, by the way, only ran after her husband, Lukashenko's initial opponent, was imprisoned, has fled the country.

But she is still leading the country's pro-democracy movement from exile.

She's asked world leaders to demand the release of what is thought to be over 650 political prisoners.

Now, I will say, the EU, the U.S., the U.K., and Canada have imposed sanctions on Belarus, targeting everything from close associates of Lukashenko to the Belarusian economy.

And the Biden administration has just recently imposed more.

But the truth is, sanctions can only do so much here, and Lukashenko does not seem keen to end his reign.

In fact, many think that he's groomed his youngest son, Kolya, to take his place, because since he was young, Lukashenko's been dragging him along everywhere he goes on state business.

I don't know exactly when European Bring Your Kid to Work Day is, but it can't be always.

So at this point, it looks like the only thing that will really improve things in Belarus is if the people there somehow manage to reform their constitution and ensure that free and fair elections are finally held.

And as we have seen tonight, fighting for those changes is going to be incredibly risky.

But there may be 1 extremely small way that we can actually help here.

If not help, at least annoy the shit out of Lukashenko.

Because if there is 1 thing that we know he hates, other than gay people, Jews, his old bald head, and anyone who disagrees with him, it is teddy bears.

Cute, lovable, and covered in thick, natural hair all the way around.

So, we actually decided to make our own special teddy bear in his honor.

As you can see, he's wearing a shirt with Farmer Lukashenko's favorite vegetables in a totally random configuration.

If you think they look like something else, what does that say about you?

And instead of dropping them from a plane over Belarus, we're actually offering them to you at this website, BelarusBearForce.com, for the price of $19.99.

We've partnered with Global Giving to give 100% of sales to organizations fighting for the freedom of the press and human rights for the people of Belarus.

So please, buy 1 of these bears, and not just for the people of Belarus, but for my sake, too.

And if we don't get rid of all of them, I'm in real shit.

Go to BelarusBearForce.com, Buy 1 for yourself, your parents, your least politically informed co-worker, or your friend's new baby who you have no idea what to get because it's not like you've ever hung out with it before.

So, be sure to audit your teddy bear today and support the people of Belarus.


Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ Our main story tonight concerns Belarus. And I know you might be expecting me to play that game where I tell you that's not actually Belarus, it's somewhere else. But here's the thing. That game was supposed to encourage you to learn some basic geography. And honestly, I started to get the sense that some of you just grew to enjoy being humiliated by it.

Which is why those particular people will be happy to know that that's not actually Belarus, that's Belarus. Happy now, you freaks? -♪ Yeah! ♪ -Specifically, we'd like to talk about Belarus' president and autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, who has had quite a year. In fact, you might have noticed stories about Belarus popping up with increasing regularity, especially since last August, when they had a highly contested election which made international headlines.

Speaker 1: Thousands of people unleashing their fury in the capital city of Minsk and elsewhere also around the country. Mr. Lukashenko, who has ruled for nearly 3 decades, has faced a wave of anger over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economy as well. Despite that, official state-approved exit polls gave him an overwhelming majority of 80 percent.

Speaker 0: It's true. They claimed Lukashenko won with 80 percent of the vote, which was immediately fishy for a couple of reasons. 1, the massive protests that followed, and 2, the idea that any man could still be popular after nearly 3 decades in the public eye. I've only had this show for 8 years, and even I can barely stand the sight of me. And Belarusians aren't just furious at Lukashenko for his handling of the coronavirus, although from the beginning of the pandemic, his mismanagement of it was incredibly reckless.

Speaker 2: At first, he called the virus a psychosis and said it was treatable with vodka and saunas.

Speaker 3: And at

Speaker 2: a crowded hockey game, he denied its existence.

Speaker 0: I don't understand. There are no viruses here. Did you see any of them flying around? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that makes sense, doesn't it?

Just look around you. You don't see any COVID viruses, do you? Do you hear any Ebola, smell any measles, taste any AIDS in the air? No, of course not. That's how you know they're not here.

What is here is your fearless leader who's about to go and score a hat-trick for the Minsk midlife crises. But Lukashenko's terrible handling of COVID is just the beginning here. He's described himself as the last and only dictator in Europe, which is, in itself, just an amazing thing to say. Bragging about being the last dictator is like bragging about being the last Radio Shack or the last person to make a movie with Harvey Weinstein. It's not an enviable title.

And sadly, for some Belarusians, he's the only leader they've ever known.

Speaker 3: How old are you? I am 22. You're 22? Yeah. So your whole life, you've lived under 1 president.

How does that feel for you? Well, it feels like shit.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah, I bet it does. Especially since the person who's been in charge for that man's entire life is a hard-boiled egg with a mustache who calls himself a dictator and thinks COVID only exists if you can see it zooming around in a tiny little jet. That process was from last September, and things have only escalated since then. You may remember a Belarusian athlete refusing to return home during the Tokyo Olympics, and back in May, this happened.

Speaker 4: This morning, Belarus is facing growing international protests and condemnation after the country's president, Alexander Lukashenko, sent a fighter jet to ground a commercial plane flying between 2 European capitals. And with it, 26-year-old dissident journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend. 1 passenger says Roman pleaded, don't do this, they'll kill me. The Ryanair crew replied, we have no choice.

Speaker 0: Yeah, a journalist who was critical of the government briefly passed through Belarusian airspace on a commercial flight, so Lukashenko personally ordered a fighter jet to intercept it and force it to land. Now, Belarusian authorities originally claimed that they did that because of an emailed bomb threat from Hamas, but records show that email was sent 24 minutes after they informed the pilot about the bomb threat. Not to mention, it was sent from Ahmed Yelanov 1988 at protonmail.com with the subject line, -"Allahu Akbar," which is just impossibly lazy. --LAUGHTER It's just 1 step above emailing from badguy6969 at yahoo.com with a subject line, terrorists, self-parentheses, like 9-11. So given how much things seem to be spiraling in Belarus, we thought tonight it'd be worth giving you some context for what is happening over there and taking a look at exactly who Alexander Lukashenko is.

And let's start with the fact that he is the greatest president in the history of Belarus. Specifically because he's the only president in the history of Belarus. Lukashenko won the country's first free and fair election in 1994, 3 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, when he, a former manager of a state-owned farm, vowed to raise taxes on the rich and defeat corruption. It sounded great, and he was genuinely popular at the time. Just listen to a former AIDS-turned-critic recall how people reacted to Lukashenko at his rallies.

Speaker 2: 3,000 people who were listening to him, instead of leaving the stadium, moved towards him like an avalanche. I remember as if it happened yesterday. They were reaching out to him like believers to a relic, praying for God's grace.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Speaker 2: Women were lifting up their children for Lukashenko to touch them. Others were reaching out with books, newspapers, or even banknotes just to get his autograph. Well, Lukashenko was no Michael Jackson, but this is what really happened.

Speaker 0: Well, well, hold on there, because was he no Michael Jackson? Think about it. Lukashenko was immensely popular in the 90s, diehard fans packed stadiums to see him, and he eventually torpedoed his reputation because it turns out he was an absolute monster. To be honest, I think Lukashenko fully earned that comparison. And he still very much plays up his humble farm background through photo ops like this 1, where he's harvesting potatoes while dressed like Chef Boyardee at an orgy.

He once gave 4 bags of potatoes and a tub of lard to Vladimir Putin as a Christmas gift. And when Steven Seagal visited Belarus, Lukashenko also gifted him produce. With the Washington Post poetically writing at the time, There was no hesitation on Steven Seagal's face as he took a raw, freshly peeled carrot from the hands of the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, and bit into it with a satisfying chomp. Which is just an elegant tapestry of words. You don't even need a video to imagine what it was like to see Steven Seagal using his mouth bones to break off the tip of that rabbit hot dog, but you know what?

We're gonna show it to you anyway. -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪

Speaker 3: It's very

Speaker 0: good for health. -♪ ♪ Magnificent. Look, no disrespect, no disrespect to Seagal classics like Under Siege, Hard to Kill, Above the Law, and probably something called Hunting the Fire or whatever. But that is the greatest film Steven Seagal has ever made. But for all Lukashenko's common man posturing, his promises to combat corruption quickly fell apart.

Just 5 months into his presidency, a deputy compiled an investigation into corruption in Parliament, which was said to have contained charges against various high-ranking officials. But the government banned all press coverage of the report to the point where local newspapers that had planned to publish the results of it instead ended up publishing blank pages like these. And that was just the beginning of a decades-long assault on the press. Shortly afterward, Lukashenko replaced the editors-in-chief of 4 leading newspapers and took the national radio and television under strict control, creating an environment so hostile to independent journalism, Belarus is now considered the most dangerous country in Europe for members of the media, with members constantly subjected to violence, arbitrary detentions, interrogations, raids, and more. And the control Lukashenko exerts over even small, petty details is incredible.

Speaker 3: Is it true that you cannot film the back of Lukashenko's head?

Speaker 5: Yes, it's true.

Speaker 3: Is it because he has a bald patch, or...?

Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a kind of very weird haircut, so it's growing from 1 side.

Speaker 0: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hold on there. You're telling me this guy is bald? This guy?

This guy? This man right here? You're telling me that this guy is bald. Bald, you say? You know what?

I think you might actually be right. He looks like he kind of grew his left sideburn into a rat tail and then shellacked it onto his bare scalp. The answer to the question, is Lukashenko bald at this point, is a resounding, oh, I wish. But Lukashenko's bizarre behavior goes well beyond censoring the media and force-feeding Steven Seagal raw vegetables. Over the years, he's made statements like, better to be a dictator than gay, and not everything connected in Germany with the well-known Adolf Hitler was bad.

Really taking the phrase, playing devil's advocate a bit too literally. And if you're thinking, okay, but who didn't accidentally praise Hitler in the 90s? First, Why are you thinking that? And second, just this summer, he said, the entire world grovels to the Jews, which is obviously awful. Lukashenko treats anti-Semitism the way fashion treats low-rise bell-bottoms.

He keeps bringing it back, even when it was never acceptable at any point in history. --LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE --Overall, it seems Lukashenko operates from the standard authoritarian playbook, and he's repeatedly worked to codify his power, using a controversial referendum in 1996 to extend his first term and dramatically increase his powers and weaken those of the legislature. And then, using a second referendum to completely remove term limits in 2004. At this point, outside observer groups have reported that none of his last 5 election victories have been legitimate. And throughout his time as president, Lukashenko has clamped down hard on the slightest signs of dissent.

In 2012, 2 men staged toy protests with stuffed animals holding anti-Lukashenko slogans. Objectively, the cutest display of civil disobedience that I have ever seen. But, that wound up getting both of those men sentenced to 10 days in jail. A sentence that in itself, actually inspired a follow-up protest.

Speaker 5: In July, hundreds of teddy bears rained down on Belarus. They wore parachutes and carried pro-democracy messages. The man behind the prank is a marketing executive with a Swedish firm. He took off from Lithuania in this tiny plane. For 90 minutes, he let the fur fly.

Speaker 0: Perfect. I love it. 10 out of 10 there. We should be dropping parachuting teddy bears from

Speaker 3: the sky

Speaker 0: here all the time. Not even as an act of protest. It should just be a thing that we do. Oh, it's 1 p.m., everyone. It's daily parachuting teddy bear time.

Why did we even invent planes if we're not gonna use them to drop teddy bears out of the sky and instantly improve everybody's day? I don't understand the society we've built for ourselves. We are fucking idiots! Now, look... Unsurprisingly, Lukashenko tried to cover that incident up, which proved to be impossible due to, you know, the existence of the Internet.

So instead, he tried to save face by firing 2 generals, the head of the border service and the head of the Air Force. But the thing is, even though protests like those can be whimsical, what happens to dissidents in Belarus is absolutely horrific. Opposition figures have disappeared over the years, and some are suspected of being murdered by the state. And there have been numerous allegations of political detainees being tortured, as this BBC journalist once tried to demonstrate in what I will say, is a pretty bold manner.

Speaker 6: The opposition in Belarus say they were tortured by being forced to strip naked in freezing conditions. So we go to a cold store in North London where the temperature is minus 24 Celsius.

Speaker 3: So the guards forced the Prisoners to strip naked and stand in this position, spread eagles, and minus 20, there was snow outside.

Speaker 6: In the jargon of torture, this is a stress position. 00000000000000.

Speaker 0: Quick question, and it actually has nothing to do with the prisoner torture. Why did you do that? You could have just told us that. You could have just told us the prisoners were forced to stand in the cold naked. We'd have believed you.

And we'd have been able to imagine what that looks like. We really didn't need to see you standing there, cakes out, to get your very basic point. And the thing is, that brutality has only escalated. Recently, Lukashenko has increased the number of arrests of human rights activists and journalists, and police have raided their offices and homes. Just this week, an opposition leader was sentenced by the state to 11 years in prison.

And even when dissidents managed to escape Belarus, they may not be safe. A few weeks ago, an activist who'd fled to Ukraine went out for a run and was found hanged in a park. And while that has not yet been officially confirmed as a murder, come on! I'm not sure which species of trees are native to Ukraine, but I don't think any of them naturally have Belarusian dissidents hanging from them. The point here is for nearly 3 decades now, Belarus has experienced a brutal cycle of oppression, in which Lukashenko wins elections that are neither free nor fair, locks up his political opponents, people take to the streets in protest, and he violently cracks down.

It is no wonder the Belarusian people seem to have had enough. A leaked poll showed that only about a third of the population trusts Lukashenko, which is impressively low, considering, remember, he controls the national media. And even there, his grip seems to be slipping, though. Last year, presenters on a state TV morning show walked off and resigned, leaving viewers watching this. ♪ Что хочешь, скажи, получишь, держи, а-а-а.

♪ -♪ Wow. That is... That is both a brave act of protest by Belarusian broadcasters, and also... Everyone's dream panel on The View. And...

And you do... You do get the sense Lukashenko may be starting to feel some pressure here, because when marchers likened him to a cockroach, and online polls showed him having only 3 percent support from his people instead of simply ignoring that. This is how he responded. Do you

Speaker 2: really believe that the serving president has just 3 percent support? Stop harassing and insulting us, calling me a mustached cockroach, et cetera. I am still the president of this country. In no country in the world are you allowed to insult people.

Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ Yes, you are. Yeah. Yeah, you definitely are. Here, I'll prove it to you. Your suit's too big, you suck at hockey, and whatever it is you do with your hair isn't fucking working.

See? --Not... Not in jail. ---WOMAN CHEERS AND APPLAUDS I'm not in jail? So, look, things are clearly bleak in Belarus, and Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, The woman widely believed to be the real winner of last year's election, and who, by the way, only ran after her husband, Lukashenko's initial opponent, was imprisoned, has fled the country.

But she is still leading the country's pro-democracy movement from exile. She's asked world leaders to demand the release of what is thought to be over 650 political prisoners. Now, I will say, the EU, the U.S., the U.K., and Canada have imposed sanctions on Belarus, targeting everything from close associates of Lukashenko to the Belarusian economy. And the Biden administration has just recently imposed more. But the truth is, sanctions can only do so much here, and Lukashenko does not seem keen to end his reign.

In fact, many think that he's groomed his youngest son, Kolya, to take his place, because since he was young, Lukashenko's been dragging him along everywhere he goes on state business. Here he is. Here he is again. Here he is again. He is in all of these photos.

I don't know exactly when European Bring Your Kid to Work Day is, but it can't be always. So at this point, it looks like the only thing that will really improve things in Belarus is if the people there somehow manage to reform their constitution and ensure that free and fair elections are finally held. And as we have seen tonight, fighting for those changes is going to be incredibly risky. But there may be 1 extremely small way that we can actually help here. If not help, at least annoy the shit out of Lukashenko.

Because if there is 1 thing that we know he hates, other than gay people, Jews, his old bald head, and anyone who disagrees with him, it is teddy bears. And frankly, why wouldn't he? I mean, look at them. They're everything that he's not. Cute, lovable, and covered in thick, natural hair all the way around.

So, we actually decided to make our own special teddy bear in his honor. As you can see, he's wearing a shirt with Farmer Lukashenko's favorite vegetables in a totally random configuration. If you think they look like something else, what does that say about you? And instead of dropping them from a plane over Belarus, we're actually offering them to you at this website, BelarusBearForce.com, for the price of $19.99. We've partnered with Global Giving to give 100% of sales to organizations fighting for the freedom of the press and human rights for the people of Belarus.

So please, buy 1 of these bears, and not just for the people of Belarus, but for my sake, too. We bought 10,000 of these things. And if we don't get rid of all of them, I'm in real shit. Go to BelarusBearForce.com, Buy 1 for yourself, your parents, your least politically informed co-worker, or your friend's new baby who you have no idea what to get because it's not like you've ever hung out with it before. So, be sure to audit your teddy bear today and support the people of Belarus.

I promise you, they are flight ready. That is our show. Thank

Speaker 3: you

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Lukashenko: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)