MINSK, Belarus — Ever since riot police officers crushed a large protest against apparent fraud in presidential elections here last month, the security services have been rounding up people across the country for even the most tangential affiliation with the opposition.
Now, it seems, they have gone a step further.
The government warned recently that it might seize custody of the 3-year-old son of an opposition presidential candidate who was jailed along with his wife, a journalist. The authorities said they were investigating the status of the child, who is now living with his grandmother, and that they expected to make a decision by the end of the month.
The tactic harks back to the Stalin era, when the children of so-called enemies of the people were sent to orphanages after their parents went to the gulag.
