Is dictatorship still possible in 21st-century Europe? By any standards of decency or sanity, the question should be either rhetorical or so hypothetical as not to warrant serious attention. But, as the 10m citizens of the former Soviet republic of Belarus can testify, it is neither. This week's elections there may determine whether Belarus formally accedes to the title of "last dictatorship in Europe" (bestowed upon it by Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state) or whether the last remnants of tyranny on the Continent are finally swept away.

If Alexander Lukashenko, the preposterous and sinister Belarusan president, gets his way the direction of events is clear. He has already intimated he will get at least 75 per cent of the votes in the election and issued a blood-curdling warning to Alexander Milinkevich, the opposition leader, who has pledged to bring thousands on to the streets if, as seems certain, the vote is rigged. "No one will climb on to the barricades to fight Lukashenko," he said. "If there are provocations, we'll give them such a going-over they won't know what's hit them." Stepan Sukhorenko, the head of what is still called the KGB, has also accused opposition leaders of planning to discredit the regime by detonating explosives among the crowds on election day - a terrifying threat that the KGB itself will plant such explosives and blame the ensuing mayhem on the opposition. The prospects for bloodshed after the March 19 poll are real. The regime has murdered its opponents in the past and will not hesitate to do so again.