Demshiza: But isn't all Belorussian opposition imprisoned, like in the USSR?
It's rather complicated: most of our opposition politicians are generally not imprisoned, asides from a few people who instantly receive a status of a venerated freedom fighter in the Western and pro-Western press. The most recent one I can recall is
Ales Bialiatski, who got arrested on tax evasion charges in 2011. Belarusian authorities kindly requested the Lithuanian authorities to provide information about his income - his activities were openly financed by the European Union. Lithuanians unwittingly provided the data, and later on Belatsky/Bialatski was arrested. He was released in 2014.
Opposition groups exist in a semi-legal state - formally, they are not banned, but the local authorities often try to obstruct their activities in various ways (very frequent fire safety inspections, registration troubles, etc.). Annual opposition marches in Minsk on the 25 of March were dispersed by riot police in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but now they go on without any troubles with the government.
During the presidential elections our opposition run a campaign against the government and openly call for mass demonstrations - it was especially noticeable in 2010. After the election, they try to start a "democratic revolution" and overthrow the government. Among most notable such attempts I can name the failed Maidan-style camping in 2006 and the attempt to seize the parliament building in 2010 - all of them ended with riot police forcible ending the "revolution" and arresting the presidential candidates, who also happen to be the main agitators. The whole progressive mankind obviously condemns it, and they are let off a few months later.
The situation with the media is following: the television and radio are mainly pro-Lukashenko apart from EU-funded satellite TV channel Belsat and several Polish radio stations. Newspapers are politically divided: state-owned papers are obviously pro-Lukashenko (СБ - Беларусь сегодня, Республика, Звязда, some official local publications, еtc.), private newspapers are either leaning towards the government or the opposition. Opposition newspapers (Народная воля, Наша ніва, Свободные новости +, etc.) operate without government obstructions - the authorities tried to shut them down in early 2000s, but it only attracted public attention towards them. You can buy the latest issue of major opposition newspapers exposing the wrongdoings of the Bloody Regime in practically every state-owned Belsayuzdruk news kiosk - a rather absurd situation for a state that apparently tries to suppress freedom of speech. Opposition websites are not blocked inside the country - reportedly you can't access them from computers located in state institutions, but I haven't tried it. When the struggle for freedom, democracy and the right to be a proud and free
Western colony EU member state becomes especially intense, some of them are temporarily shut down across the country along with social networks and major email services.