[9] Observers and human rights organizations have noted that since the protests, the regime has thoroughly "cleansed" the political landscape, and that conditions for free elections are "currently practically absent in Belarus."[5] Days before the election, Lukashenko accused the West of trying to use "new triggers to destabilize the society" and claimed that Polish authorities were trying to convince senior Belarusian officials to switch their allegiance as part of a coup plot.Belarusian political analyst Valery Karbalevich noted that Lukashenko was treating the election like a "military operation", with authorities seeing any vote "as a threat and a pretext to step up repressions and tighten the screws.[13] The Interior Ministry conducted drills during which police detained offenders photographing ballots and creating artificial queues outside polling stations.The Viasna Human Rights Center said that students, soldiers, teachers and other government employees were forced to participate in early voting.[25][26][27] Russian president Vladimir Putin congratulated Lukashenko on "the confident victory of patriotic forces of Belarus", which he said helped to "ensure internal political stability.