Given that governments have helped overturn regimes before, why isn't this being done now? Clearly it would benefit the Belarussian people (friends I have there are struggling a lot) as well as EU. Or are we just afraid of Russia too much still?
What sort of intervention did you have in mind? And what's the "then what" plan for the subsequent twenty years?
Indeed, they do. No wonder the EU came out of what were essentially economic alliances.
Considering how a few of those countries ended up after forced/aided regime change, like Iraq, Lybia, Syria, why would anyone still think it's a good idea to be taken lightly?
If EU intervenes, Russia will too. And there's much more popular support for Russia than for EU. Belarus people know their economy is a museum of Soviet era remains bankrolled by Russia. Heading West would mean total economic collapse to rebuild the system. They're little North Korea in many more ways than mass media talks about.
The sad reality is EU/West can't win here.
Russia won't, because they're quite happy with the situation.
The EU won't, because Russia would intervene with any sign of Belarusian leaders getting 'sick'.