The embarrassed president of Belarus has a message for tens of thousands of Protestants who continue to demand his resignation: He is not leaving at all.
Video shown on state news agency Belta showed a gun-wielding president Alexander Lukashenko coming out of a helicopter after another unverified video shared on social media showed hovering over enormous protest masses in the capital Minsk.No ammunition clip was seen in his weapon.
The strong man with body armor was shown by Belta arriving by helicopter as the crowds approached the edges of his presidential throne grounds before spreading peace.
A Belta voiceover identified a teen, also in camouflage-style body armor and carrying a rifle, in Lukashenko’s entourage as the president’s 15-year-old son, Nikolai.
A crowd of between 100,000 and 200,000 people attended the rally in Minsk as protesters entered their third week after a disputed election, which saw Lukashenko, 65, win by a landslide, although opposition groups called for a vote. .
In the days following the disputed vote, violent clashes with police resulted in the arrest of thousands of people and dozens of wounded, and protests of great magnitude and duration were not fought for Belarus.
It is not clear why Lukashenko made the show forceful, as there were no reports of Protestants attempting to enter the presidency or its grounds.
A large contingent of security services and police buses were deployed at the rally in the capital, raising fears of a recurrence, but there were no immediate reports of collisions or detentions.
Another video that appeared on social media on Sunday showed Lukashenko greeting rioting policemen outside his residence. The president can be heard thanking the officers and calling them “beauty.” The policemen can be heard banging their shields in response. Some may be heard shouting, “We are with you to the end.”
Belarusians have been protesting every day since the August 9 elections. Lukashenko has accused foreign forces of conspiring to overthrow him.
He has allayed fears of NATO troops assembling on the country’s western border, a claim the Alliance denies.
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Meanwhile, Belarussian opposition leader Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, a political novice and striker for Lukashenko, will meet with Deputy State Secretary Stephen Biegun in Lithuania on Monday.
Tsikhanouskaya fled to Lithuania for security reasons.
She declared herself the legitimate winner and told Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza on Monday that she hoped a dialogue with the authorities would begin soon, Reuters reported.
Lukashenko’s collapse on Protestants has caused international condemnation, with European leaders threatening sanctions and calling the US elections “neither free nor fair”.
Reuters contributed to this report.
