BELARUSIAN AUTHORITIES IMPOSE TRAVEL BAN ON OPPOSITION ACTIVIST

A district visa department in Minsk has nullified a foreign-travel permit in the passport of Lyudmila Hraznova, deputy head of the opposition United Civic Party. The authorities justified their measure by Hraznova's failure to pay a fine of some $2,000 for her role in staging an unauthorized opposition march to mark an anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in April. But Hraznova asserts that the travel ban was imposed for her recent appearance on television in Latvia where she criticized Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. "This is very similar to what was done in the Soviet Union, when dissidents were not allowed to travel abroad," Hraznova told RFE/RL. "We may find ourselves in the same situation as Soviet-era dissidents. I have a feeling that the [Belarusian] authorities have begun to close an iron curtain."