While Belarus has not been designated as Russian-occupied territory, Russianization here has been an inevitable development and now fully entrenched in the country. This includes suppression of any political opposition. Not since the protests of 2020, not a single demonstration from the democratic opposition has been allowed. Some 500,000 have left the country.
Open info sources from the West have been blocked. Repressions are so far-reaching that people caught receiving anti-regime messaging from abroad through social media have been arrested. Even searches of telephone contents on the street result in prison sentences.
Observers have noted that the most insidious form of Russification/Russianization is in schools, where students are taught in Russian. Critics accuse the Moscow-grovelling regime of instituting systematic Russification in which the language, history and culture are eliminated.
In Ukraine, the four regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia with Crimea, represent about 20% of the internationally recognized territory of the country – areas larger than Portugal or Hungary.
(Pikemalt saab lugeda Eesti Elu 15. detsembri 2023 paber- või digilehest eestielu.ca)
