In each of the past 10 years, the economy has unfailingly shrunk. Industrial production has plunged 70 percent, agricultural production has halved. Wages have imploded, contracting 70 percent, while prices for heating oil, electricity, bread and public transit have skyrocketed, along with unemployment. The country's debt has ballooned. And grinding poverty has left many ordinary citizens fed up.
Posters appear everywhere, tacked up by a student resistance group that aims to oust the president.
Tens of thousands take to the streets demanding the president step down. They mass in front of government buildings. An attempted assault on the president's administrative offices is beaten back by security forces. The political opposition accuses the president of corruption, of press censorship, of organizing a police state and of ballot stuffing and vote buying in an election branded a complete disgrace by international observers. In an attempt to redirect the country's attention, the president whips up enmity toward an ethnic minority.