A couple of years ago, under its despotic leader Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus introduced the idea of a ‘social parasite’ tax, where an unemployed person has to pay an annual fee for not-working, or risk detention or other sanctions. The Presidential Decree #3 (2015) “decree against social parasites” imposed this unemployment tax on people who work (according to official record) fewer than 183 days a year and so do not take part in the “financing of the state”. The tax is the equivalent of US$250.

Now in 2017 people have taken to the streets against repression at a large scale in response to two particularly nasty developments. First, the suggestion to include ‘housewives’ with children under 7 years old if they are at nursery. Second, 470,000 unemployment tax notices were sent out in January, including to people working abroad, with a deadline of 20th February to pay or face arrest, forced labour, withdrawal of driving license or permission to work abroad. Perhaps not surprisingly non-payment was close to 90%.