TIMOTHY GARTON ASH: Belarus needs you!

Last night, thousands (estimates of exactly how many varied considerably) of people turned out in freezing cold on Minsk’s October Square to protest at what they saw as a rigged election and to call for freedom. Some of them carried the European flag. A key question now (Monday midday) is: will they turn out again tonight, as opposition leaders have called for? In larger numbers or smaller? And will the KGB (still so called in Belarus) treat the protesters as “terrorists”, as its boss has threatened?

How do you think those who live in democracies – especially the democracies of Europe – should react? I’ll be writing about this in my Guardian column on Thursday. I’d appreciate your comments.

I’d like to see Belarus go the way of Ukraine. Lukashenko — and Putin — feel differently.

UPDATE: StrategyPage has more on Belarus.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A cautionary response from Ivan Lenin.