January 2025 in Belarus is not one of them. Drive around Minsk and you'll see no big billboards promoting the portraits of candidates. There is little campaigning. The grey skies and sleet of a Belarusian winter add to an overriding sense of inactivity.

Belarus will hold a presidential election that will almost certainly give authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka a seventh term in power. Belarus's opposition has been gutted and citizens are fearful of another brutal crackdown.