Crossing Continents: Belarus Youth

Lucy Ash travels to Belarus ahead of parliamentary elections this autumn to ask the post-Soviet generation where they think their future lies on a country often described as the last dictatorship in Europe. Former collective farm boss Alexander Lukashenka has kept an iron grip on power for the past 14 years in this country sandwiched between Russia and the European Union. After rigged presidential elections in 2006, thousands took to the streets hoping to emulate the bloodless regime changes in neighbouring Ukraine and Georgia. But they failed and the nation still seems stuck in a Communist era time warp. So are young people happy with the status quo or are they paralysed by fear?