Stroke Or Heart Attack?

People are not afraid of memes.

This week, Belarusians discussed two main news stories: Lukashenka's shortness of breath and his inability to climb the stairs to the second floor during Putin's birthday celebration. Everything else is a small news background, which looked very pale behind such news.

“Look, he's barely speaking!” “He's choking!” “He can't walk anymore!” This is how Belarusians reacted on social media to photos and videos of Lukashenka in the Kremlin. Moreover, they discussed it very bloodthirsty, with uncovered pleasure. And I suddenly realized that Lukashenka had already begun to serve his prison sentence. The verdict came into force, the inevitability of punishment caught him up even in the Kremlin.

He feels bad. This can be seen in all photos and videos, not only from Moscow. He feels bad physically and mentally. He knows perfectly well how enthusiastically Belarusians look at the circles under their eyes and extra pounds in the photos, how impatiently they listen to the intermittent breathing on the video, as they say on the other side of the screen: come on, just a little more, do not let them down! He knows that any appearance in public is a surge of popular gloating: he looks really bad, now he won't go skiing.

And not to appear in public. Lukashenka, maybe, would like to close in some residence, so that Kachanava serves food, and Massandra answers the calls "he does not accept, leave a phone message." Well, he can put Karpenkou and Karayeu in the hallway as guards. And that's it, no more outsiders, let alone photographers and cameramen. But you can't, because the people will rejoice even more and begin to dance in the streets, and after all, they, the people, have been weaned from these bad street habits for several years.

I remember perfectly well the summer of 2018, when Lukashenka disappeared for a week from the public space, did not hold meetings and did not award the Cossack choir, and then there was no limit to human jubilation. The Internet was full of photograph manipulation, Belarusians learned to imitate Levitan's voice and the phrase "from the Soviet Information Bureau", and girls who were going to get married flirted on social media that in such circumstances their weddings might not become the main event of the month. Familiar doctors wrote in personal messages: "Stroke, information is one hundred percent, my friend is in the intensive care unit." And then there was May of the last year, when everyone saw that Lukashenka was unable to walk a few meters along Red Square – even Putin, who was mothballed and punctured with Botox, looked cheerful against his background. And all the other "CISists" marched through the square without falling down or staggering. And Lukashenka was taken by car to a distance of 300 meters to the Alexander Garden. That was a real source of national rejoicing.

Lukashenka knows all this perfectly well. He didn't forget anything. And by an effort of will, he forces himself to get up, relying on the squad, from the chair and walks to the car. Let them see that he has not gone anywhere and is not going anywhere. But every exit in front of cameras is painful for him. Because no filters can hide age, shortness of breath, and painful condition. Doctors who managed to leave are happy to comment on his appearance on social media, make diagnoses and give forecasts. No one has been interested in how many percent of the votes Yarmoshyna will draw for him next year - it's boring. But everyone is interested in discussing how much time he has left. And to discuss carnivorous, bloodthirsty, with pleasure. Call your doctor friends and ask: well, did you see him? What do you think? Soon?

By the way, not so long ago, when there were rumors about the next residence of Lukashenka, I wanted to find the source. And I started typing "Lukashenka has a new residence" into the search engine. So, after the words "Lukashenka has", the helpful Google immediately gave me the most popular query: "Lukashenka has a stroke or a heart attack." Here they are, people's aspirations in action.

This is the punishment: not only to know that every sneeze, every loss of balance causes the jubilation of the masses, but also to understand that it definitely does not cause fear. People, of course, are afraid of prisons, torture, security forces who come at dawn to break down the doors, but not Lukashenka. People understand that the repressions are already taking place without his participation, by inertia. And he himself will definitely not come to beat with a baton or shit in the elevator. He again, as thirty years ago, at the very beginning, became a caricature character. Back to origins. And if it goes down in history, then only with the comic number "And now I will show you from where the attack on Belarus was prepared." And people are not afraid of memes, that's for sure.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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