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Belarus on the Brink

Authoritarian Belarus, which has been ruled by the same man since 1994, is the site of unprecedented protests and political rallies sweeping not just the capital, Minsk, but the countryside as well following a presidential vote on August 9, 2020, that is widely regarded as bogus. Strongman Alexander Lukashenko is now caught between two fires: public pressure for his ouster and genuine reform on the one hand, and an aggressive Moscow, which has been trying to reabsorb the country ever since it broke away, on the other. And for the first time in Belarus' history, a woman, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has managed to unite the once-fractious opposition and gather thousands at rallies in cities and towns across the country. So, is the “last dictatorship in Europe" finally ready for reform, or is the stage simply being set for a Russian takeover? Special Correspondent Simon Ostrovsky reports from Belarus for PBS NewsHour Weekend.