MINSK– On 19 December 2010, Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a re-election (his fourth) marred by irregularities and falsifications. The mass protests that ensued were brutally repressed. All nine opposition candidates and 700 protesters were arrested; the opposition leaders Andrei Sannikov and Nikolai Statkevich remain in prison, as well as 13 other political prisoners. Since then, the situation in the country has become ever more desperate; Belarus is a state hovering on a precipice. The numbers speak more strongly than any words.

189 percent is the rate at which the Belarusian rouble devalued this year.

113.6 percent is the current figure for base inflation. Food prices have risen by 127.4 percent, those of services by 72.4 percent.

45 percent is the current refinancing rate, the highest in the world (a year ago, it stood at 10.5 percent).

70 percent of GDP is the estimated size of Belarus’ external debt by the end of 2011.

$177 is the difference between wages in December 2010 and October 2011 (average incomes dropped from $530 to $353 per month).

11 price increases have driven up the cost of gasoline in 2011, provoking several mass protests.

100 percent is the ownership by Gazprom of Belarusian pipeline operator Beltransgaz. Having just purchased the remaining 50 percent for $2.5 billion, Russia now for the first time owns a pipeline outside its territory. Gazprom has promised a threefold wage growth to its new employees.

$7.3 billion is the total of Russian subsidies to Belarus, as per Moscow’s calculations, in 2011. For example, the price of gas will drop from $ 270 per one thousand cubic meters to $ 165.50 for Belarusians (Ukrainians will pay $ 416). Besides reductions in gas prices and the purchase of Beltransgaz, Sberbank has provided a $1 billion loan to potash giant Belaruskali, and the Eurasian Economic Community made available a $440 stabilisation loan.

Tens of thousands of Belarusians have migrated to Russia and Ukraine for work; the worst-case scenario expects 1 million people to leave.

20.5 percent is the share of Belarusian citizens that would cast their vote for Lukashenko today. The official number given for the 2010 election was 79.6 percent; independent polls at the time showed the real number was 51.1 percent.

It has been a long year for the Belarusians.

Maryna Rakhlei is a journalist with the independent Belarusian news agency Belapan.

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