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What happened on the streets of Minsk on Sunday was partly reminiscent of the violence shortly after the presidential elections two months ago. The security forces were tougher and more aggressive than in previous weeks against peaceful protesters who wanted to gather. They attacked the protesters with Grips and poleseven if they were already on the ground. Sometimes they threw stun grenades into the crowd and used pepper spray. They then chased protesters at gunpoint, with which they can fire rubber bullets, which they then used late at night, according to media reports.
According to initial information, at least 40 people were injured. Pictures shown Men with bloody faces and bandages around their heads.
Injured protester in Minsk
Photo: Natalia Fedosenko / ITAR-TASS / imago images
Belarusian reporters tried to document what was happening on Sunday if they could still work. Already at the beginning of the “Pride March”, which the opposition channel Telegram Nexta convened at the national level, dozens of them were taken away, including Russian journalists. In doing so, the regime again attacked journalists. According to human rights activists, more than 500 people, representatives of the media and protesters were arrested in Belarus, many of them at the beginning of the protests.
After all, tens of thousands of protesters marched through the city of Minsk alone. The exact number of protesters was difficult to estimate, also because the forces dispersed the groups.
Lukashenko holds meetings with opponents
Belarus lived a weekend of different embassies. On Saturday, the ruler Alexander Lukashenko was shown with imprisoned opposition members, including Viktor Babariko. He held the four-and-a-half-hour meeting at the No. 1 remand prison of his secret service KGB, according to the Telegram channel “Pool des Erste”, which is close to Lukashenko. A short video was also released.
It was the first time in history that the president published photographs of this type with political opponents. “The meeting was a surprise to everyone,” political scientist Olga Dryndova told SPIEGEL. “Thus he admitted the existence of political prisoners in the country.”
“Signs of weakness”
For a long time, the Lukashenko regime described the opposition as criminals. A dialogue with criminals does not need a strong leader, Minsk political scientist Artyom Schraibman pointedly commented on Telegram. “80 percent (Editor’s note: this is the result of the elections that Lukashenko had published for himself) Legitimacy gives you the right to reform without going to jail. “
Dryndova therefore speaks of a “sign of weakness.” Lukashenko’s meeting shows that he saw no choice but to take this step. By then Belarus was in a “stalemate” after the elections, which was overshadowed by counterfeiting and manipulation, says Dryndova. Neither the Protestant people nor the regime with its repressions have so far been able to resolve the conflict in their favor.
The independent Internet portal tut.by shows images from state television of Lukashenko’s meeting:
Dialogue on your terms
It was noted that Sergei Tichanowskij, the husband of Svetlana Tichanowskaja, and Maria Kolesnikova, who is also in custody, were not present during the conversation with Lukashenko. Little is known of its content.
Also, Lukashenko can only be heard in the short video with the opposition. It is absurd scenes how the ruler tells the opponents gathered around the table that he is talking, telling them that a new constitution will not be drawn up in the street, which can also be understood as a warning to the protesters. It is not known to what extent the jailed opposition activists voluntarily participated in the meeting. Two participants in the meeting with Lukashenko were released on Sunday night: businessman Yuri Voskresensky and PandaDoc IT director Dmitry Rabtsevich.
Security forces kick and beat protesters in Minsk
Photo: AP
One thing is clear: Lukashenko will only enter into a dialogue with his adversaries if it is carried out on his terms. To what extent the stagnation in the country can be resolved is not very predictable. Lukashenko seems to be far from real negotiations, for example, in the form of a round table with various representatives of the opposition. Especially since their behavior doesn’t seem logical. “It just doesn’t fit that Lukashenko talks about dialogue on the one hand, and on the other the security forces act much harsher than usual against the protesters this time. But his behavior is not always logical,” says Dryndova.
Against Tichanovskaya
Jörg Forbrig, Director for Central and Eastern Europe of the German Marshall Fund, sees in Lukashenko’s actions the intention to undermine Tichanwoskaya’s position as an important leader of the democratic movement. “His support within Belarus and his international reputation are higher than ever,” he wrote on Facebook. Tichanwoskaja was received by Chancellor Angela Merkel this week. That is why Lukashenko now trusts Babriko, according to Forbrig, whom he believes should return to the political game.
Lukashenko had Babriko, a former manager of Belgazprombank, a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned Gazprom, arrested in June. He is accused of alleged money laundering and tax evasion. Babriko was considered the candidate with the best chances in the presidential elections.
Babriko’s name, as reported by the editor-in-chief of the Kremlin’s critical broadcaster Echo Moskwy, is said to have been mentioned during talks between Lukashenko and Putin in Sochi. Putin had approved the Belarusian ruler’s constitutional reform, but his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for broad social dialogue that included the opposition.
“You don’t have a dialogue in a prison cell”
Babariko is considered much more acceptable to the Kremlin than Tichanovskaya, whom the Kremlin spokesman only describes as a “citizen”. There is already speculation about the release of Babriko. Does Lukashenko want to send such a signal to Moscow? But why should he accept Lukashenko’s conditions and work on a constitutional reform that the opposition clearly rejects?
Tichanwoskaja and other members of the opposition believe that Lukashenko is trying to buy time and weaken the protest with the reform. Tichanovskaya wrote on Twitter “of an imitation of a dialogue” with which Lukashenko only wanted to divide the Belarusians.
He again called for new elections and the release of all political prisoners. She said, “You don’t have a dialogue in a prison cell.”
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