As the unexpected white-red-white Belarusian revolution continues, and both the stakes and risks are raised, international reaction has been growing accordingly.

The scale of the mass country-wide demonstrations, followed by strikes, to protest against the rigging of the presidential election on August 9 caught everyone by surprise. The ruthlessness and cruelty of the Lukashenka regime in trying to crush them, even more so.

No one had foreseen such rapid and dramatic developments. Belarus was generally regarded as a politically docile country without an effective opposition to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and without leaders capable of challenging him.