As mass demonstrations over a contested presidential election begin in Belarus for a third week, tens of thousands of people gather in the capital and across the country over the weekend to demand change and a new presidential poll.
While Sunday’s protest in Minsk was unfolding, Lukashenko’s press service recorded and posted a series of bizarre videos in which the strongman leader inspected the city with a helicopter, wearing a black uniform and a cold vest.
“They ran away like rats,” Lukashenko said as the plane approached one of his Minsk residences, the Palace of Independence.
In another video, he is seen stepping out of a helicopter at the palace with a Kalashnikov-style rifle in his hands. Accompanied by armed soldiers and his 15-year-old son Kolya, also armed and wearing a military uniform, the group appears to be thankful for insurgent police who formed a barricade in the avenue leading to the residence during the the protest.
Independent observers criticized the August 9 poll for the country as neither free nor fair. And much of the international community has expressed solidarity with the protesters, pressuring Lukashenko – who has ruled Belarus for 26 years – to give in to calls for a new vote.
Meanwhile, Lukashenko has blamed the West for sending the protests and made a series of unfounded claims about the West to increase its military efforts on the borders of Belarus.
Sunday’s recordings appeared after some of the protesters who attended Sunday’s March for New Belarus’ approached the Palace of Independence after disrupting the main demonstration.
The march first started on Independence Square near the parliament and the buildings of the Central Election Commission, but the Protestants soon dispersed and moved to other parts of the city.
Several thousand people marched to Victory Park, where the largest demonstration in the history of Belarus took place a weekend ago. The entrance to the park and its war memorial have been burnt down by policemen and soldiers. Prior to the protest, the country’s Ministry of Defense issued a strong statement claiming to take control of national monuments to protect them from protesters.
At one point, protesters approached the monument, but were told to step back to avoid confrontation by Maria Kolesnikova, the last opposition leader to remain in the country. Several thousand Protestants then marched further in the avenue towards the Palace of Independence. By the time Lukashenko’s videos appeared, the demonstration was largely over.
The president then returned to the palace to hold an “emergency security meeting.” In a picture posted by his press service, Lukashenko is seen sitting at a large round table with his press secretary and his teenage son, who is still holding a gun.
.
