By some estimates, many warehouses are stuffed with six months' supply of goods. Some private ventures, like a Ford Motor Company tractor plant in Minsk, have simply shut down most operations for the duration. Desperate as the nation's condition might appear, virtually nobody is writing Mr. Lukashenko off. Even opposition leaders here allow that he remains popular, especially in rural areas. And he has virtually managed to extinguish serious opposition while allowing enough critical politicians and newspapers to operate so that he can deflect accusations by human rights activists.
Nobody ever answers.
Demonstrations are sometimes permitted, but protesters are frequently harassed, arrested and occasionally beaten. Some 30 opposition newspapers are published, but their presence is limited to a few copies at state-owned newsstands, and their editors are often hauled in for official warnings. Their combined circulation, journalists insist, is less than that of the leading state-controlled newspaper in Minsk. Two reporters for Russian public radio were arrested last year. One leading critical paper, Svoboda, was abruptly closed in January.