MINSK, Belarus – Minutes after Belarus’ President Alexander G. Lukashenko vowed to stand firm against protesters he hailed as “rats”, “trash” and “bandits”, anti-government protesters staged their biggest protest yet on Sunday to counter a fraud-infected presidency election a week earlier.
Tens of thousands of Protestants – some estimated to have numbered more than 200,000 – appeared in the center of Minsk, the capital, and earlier in the day carried out a rally by Mr Lukashenko’s supporters.
It turned out to be the largest protest in the history of Belarus, a former Soviet republic led by Mr Lukashenko since 1994.
When the crowd gathered at a Soviet obelisk on Victors Avenue, many sang for Mr. Lukashenko to leave and wave the traditional white and red flag, which became a symbol of opposition after the president replaced it. with a more Soviet-style national flag soon after coming to power
The protest had a festive air, in stark contrast to the tense moods of many smaller gatherings last week that were violently suppressed by security forces, killing at least two people, injuring many and arresting more than 6,000.
For the first time, Belarusians were allowed to roam free in the city center, wrapped in flags of opposition and singing anti-government slogans. After gathering at the obelisk, they walked towards the main square, blocking traffic on the main road of the capital. Just a week ago, a group of people clapping on a sidewalk were allegedly violently dispersed by police. Sunday, police were nowhere to be seen.
Many Protestants said they did because they did not expect them to be violently dispersed. Others said they came because they were shocked to learn that Protestants were being tortured after being arrested at previous rallies.
“These events unite everyone,” said Olga V. Golovanova, an economist. “We are awakened by the fact that we want freedom, we want the human being,” she added. “The government believed they were gods and we are nothing.”
Indeed, in a speech to supporters shortly before city streets were filled with people demanding that he resign, Mr. Lukashenko’s own fate is similar to that of the nation, saying, “If you destroy Lukashenko, it will be the beginning of the end for you.”
Protesters enjoyed the opportunity to express their views. They took selfies in front of the main security services building, still called the KGB in Belarus, something that was unimaginable just days ago.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Vladislav A. Ianovich, 18, a computer science student wearing a European Union flag. “I think we have to repeat such events several times and the country will change. It has already changed. ”
To some, however, the euphoria of the opposition seems premature, as Mr Lukashenko is still in power.
“This is not the end yet,” said Sergei, 57, a teacher at an institution run by the state. He said he was afraid to give his last name because he wanted to protect his students. “It will all depend on what factory workers will do,” he said.
The protest came in response to a call for a “March for Freedom” by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the main candidate for opposition in the presidential election. She participated in the race after the arrest of her husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, a popular blogger who had planned to run as a candidate. Ms Tikhanovskaya, who says she won the election, was forced to leave Belarus to neighboring Lithuania early last week.
The mass protest on Sunday suggested that Mr Lukashenko, who claimed a landslide victory with 80 per cent of the vote on August 9, had failed in his efforts to intimidate opponents by a frenzy of police violence and increasingly stern warnings that the unrest could pave the way for military action by NATO.
When his supporters, many of them state employees, addressed an open-air rally in Minsk on Sunday afternoon, Mr Lukashenko attacked his opponents with defiant and often crude bravado, insulting his critics, rejecting calls for a new election and accusing NATO of massage on its western border of the country.
The accusation of his enemies as traitors “ruled by puppets, by outsiders”, Mr Lukashenko, a 65-year-old former state farm director who may become the last dictator of Europe, warned that “even if they calm down now, they will crawl out of the holes like rats after a while. ‘
His claims of a military build-up by the US-led military alliance followed a pledge by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin that Moscow would support Belarus if it faced a military threat. He and Mr Lukashenko spoke by telephone on Saturday and again on Sunday.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Kremlin said Russia was ready “to provide the necessary assistance to resolve the issues” and referred to a collective security treaty signed by Russia, Belarus in the early 1990s. and seven other former Soviet states. The treaty stipulates that aggression against one member of the ally results in an attack on all of them.
Mr. Lukashenko seems to be calculating that he can secure the best Russian aid against his domestic adversaries by bringing a false military crisis to the border. The Belarussian Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that it would hold military exercises near its western border from Monday through Thursday.
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the alliance “closely monitors the situation in Belarus”, but added that “there is no building of NATO in the region.”
Just weeks ago, Mr Lukashenko accused Russia of plotting to overthrow him. But for the biggest political challenge of his 26th birthday, he made a U-turn, the last in many over the years by the very erratic president, and now looks to Moscow as his best hope for survival.
Whether Mr Putin, who is increasingly tired of the flip-flops and Mr Lukashenko’s period of flirting with the West, wants him to survive, is an open question. The Russian leader expressed his congratulations on an election victory that fraudulently dismissed European countries and the United States.
But a Kremlin account of a telephone conversation between the two leaders on Saturday did not discriminate against Mr Lukashenko’s whereabouts. A leading pro-Kremlin politician, Konstantin Zatulin, described Mr Lukashenko last week as “deranged” and his re-election as “a total forgery.”
In a sign of growing anger among even government officials, the Belarusian ambassador to Slovakia, Igor Leshchenya, posted a video on YouTube on Sunday expressing support for the Protestants. ‘Like all Belarusians,’ he said, ‘I am shocked by reports of torture and beatings against my citizens.’
Even factories in the state – once solid bastions of support for Mr Lukashenko – have taken to the opposition, with strikes gathering steam last week at a number of state-owned companies in the state, including a tractor factory in Minsk.
The pro-government on Sunday marked only the shrinking base of Mr. Lukashenko’s support. Many attendees had to be bushed from towns and villages outside the capital. But they included people who expressed real support for the president, or at least his commitment to keep the country safe from aggression outside.
“The West does not need us,” said Olga N. Mokhnach, 43, a music instructor. For all of Belarus’ economic and other problems, she said, “we are not in the same difficult situation as Ukraine,” which killed its own president in 2014 and is now embroiled in a looming war with Russian-armed separatists.
Standing with her husband, Vladimir, 52, Ms. Mokhnach said Belarussian society was largely damaged in generational ties. She said the couple’s two children – ages 14 and 16 – were political against her and her husband.
“We cry against each other every night,” Ms Mokhnach said.
