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Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets of the Belarusian capital for a new march, as police said they had detained about 250 people.
Despite the intensification of the crackdown, the protesters gathered in Minsk and headed towards the Palace of Independence, the residence of President Alexander Lukashenko, said an AFP correspondent.
Lukashenko faces a wave of public anger after declaring a landslide victory in last month’s presidential elections that his opponents say was rigged.
Mr. Lukashenko denies these accusations.
“Some 250 people were detained in various districts of the capital,” the Interior Ministry said today in a statement, adding that the detainees carried “offensive” flags and posters.
Access to the mobile internet was limited and central metro stations closed, and authorities moved police vans, military vehicles and barbed wire downtown ahead of the protest.
Belarusians have been demonstrating against Lukashenko’s disputed re-election for a month, with more than 100,000 people flooding the streets of Minsk for four consecutive weekends.
The new march came as Lukashenko’s security forces stepped up arrests of protesters and senior opposition figures who are still in Belarus.
The opposition announced the protest slogan “We will not let him sell the country” ahead of Lukashenko’s first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the demonstrations began, which will take place tomorrow in Russia.
Analysts say Putin may seek to exploit Lukashenko’s political vulnerability to wrest concessions from him, but any deal that compromises Belarus’ sovereignty and independence is likely to further enrage Belarusian protesters.
After a massive protest last Sunday, Maria Kolesnikova, one of three prominent opposition figures, was jailed after she resisted expulsion and tore her passport.
More than 600 people were arrested last Sunday in one of the largest waves of arrests since the first days of the demonstrations.
Yesterday masked riot police violently detained dozens of female protesters and threw them into vans during a smaller protest in Minsk.
Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who according to the protest movement won the vote on August 9 but was forced to leave the country, paid tribute to the protesters before the march.
She was forced into exile in neighboring EU member state Lithuania.
“Over the past month we have become a truly heroic people,” Ms Tikhanovskaya, a politically unknown person until the elections, said in a video.
“We continue our fight for freedom,” he said.
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