According to Channel 5, Lukashenko is holding a prolonged press conference at which the press constitutes about a third of the audience; the rest are government officials.

He sort of promises to let the jailed opposition activists go, says they are should be grateful to the police - not sure for what.

He is an idiotic sight, looks and sounds like a parody on someone Soviet. But very self-assured. And the very Soviet setting - a huge conference hall, the Soviet emblem behind Lukashenko - only reinforce this strange feeling: it's a parody, or deja vu, but it's not gonna go away anytime soon.

Subconsciously, I don't believe the protests in Minsk are gonna work - but how I wish I were wrong!..

I wonder how many more Belarusians would choose to leave their country in the near future - if only because it is very embarrassing to be represented by Lukashenko, to let him represent you for the third term in a row.