People power, silenced – Inside the 4 June edition of Guardian Weekly

From Belarus to Hong Kong, why is popular protest being crushed?
Get the magazine delivered to your home.

Last August, thousands took to the streets of Belarus to bravely protest against rigged elections, in a mood of defiance and hope that the arm of the nation's old strongman ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, could finally be bent. Instead, 10 months on, many of Lukashenko's opponents have either fled the country or - in the shocking case of the journalist Raman Pratasevich last month - been detained in brutal circumstances.

In our big story this week, Andrew Roth looks at how Belarus has deployed a 21st-century reboot of the Soviet-era playbook to crush internal dissent, while Will Hutton reflects on why people power is failing, from Minsk to Hong Kong, and why we should all be concerned.