Below are my yesterday's Global Voices notes on Belarus.

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A Fistful of Euros reports on a weird blog called Belarus Today: A News Service Dedicated to Belarus and the Belarusian People. It covers such an unlikely event as Lukashenko's assassination - and its pretty violent aftermath. There's a disclaimer at the bottom of the page, however, which reads: "This website is part of a foreign policy simulation. The events depicted are not actually taking place."

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Through negligence, LJ user czalex, a foreign citizen once registered in Belarus (1995-96), was registered to vote in this election. He didn't vote, of course, but visited several polling stations as an observer, and noted a few violations (RUS). This photo, for example, shows how it was made impossible for the observers to observe the count of the votes: they had to sit 10 meters away from the table with the ballots.

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Ivan Lenin - formerly of Minsk, now of New York - translates a post by LJ user lipski, a Minsk resident, on who benefits from the Oktyabrskaya Sq. crackdown, and shares his thoughts on the country's future: "If anything, the West should engage Belarus as much as possible. Isolation would make Belarus more like North Korea."

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French journalist writing for Liberation has just been arrested in Minsk; actually so many people have been arrested that, unprecedentally, Minsk courts will be working on Saturday, reports br23 blog. Andrei Khrapavitski posts a picture from today's flash mob event that took place in Minsk to criticize the performance of the state-controlled media.