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The rally took place after Belarusian authorities accused key opposition figures of collaborating with Russian militants to destabilize the country.
Political newcomers, supporters of S. Tichanovskaya, a non-working mother of two, have flooded Minsk Square during perhaps the largest opposition rally in Belarus in a decade.
An AFP journalist reported that a large crowd of people were waving flags and holding balloons with symbols of the opposition election campaign, a victory sign, a clenched fist and a heart.
“Changes!”: An inscription on one of the posters.
The human rights organization Viasna reported that at least 63,000 people had gathered at the demonstration. persons.
Earlier Thursday, Belarusian investigators accused Tichanovskaya’s husband, blogger Sergei Tichanovsky, and another government critic Nikolai Statkevich of planning to organize massive riots with Russian mercenaries ahead of the August 9 presidential elections.
Both S. Tichanovskis and N. Statkevičius were imprisoned in the run-up to the elections.
The accusations by opposition leaders cooperating with Russian mercenaries are the latest unexpected turn in Belarus’s presidential election campaign, in which Lukashenko, 65, who has been in power for almost three decades, seeks to secure a sixth term. like the country’s growing anger at his government.
Belarus security services said on Wednesday they had arrested 33 Russian “fighters” who had arrived on a mission to destabilize the country.
The Kremlin has dismissed such allegations as “innuendo”.
According to Minsk, the detainees belong to the Russian private military company Vagner, a secret organization controlled by one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies and used to defend Moscow’s interests in Ukraine, Syria and Libya.
Addressing her supporters during the rally, Ms. Tichanovskaya, 37, said that authorities were destroying the lives of not only her husband but all political prisoners.
“The situation with those fighters is very frightening,” he said as the crowd chanted “Freedom.”
“What revolution?”
Ms Tikhanovskaya has denied the allegations that the opposition has planned to organize an uprising with detained Russian citizens.
“People, what revolution? We want a fair election, “said Tichanovskaya, who emerged as a rival to Lukashenko when authorities jailed other key candidates.
She said she was interrogated when the Russian contractors were arrested. According to S. Tikhanyovskaya, they may have traveled in transit through Belarus for a long time.
“I have a question: where have the security services been before and why are they raising this problem just before the elections?” He said.
Investigators said they had filed a criminal case against “S. Tikhanyovsky, N. Statkevich and 33 detained Russian citizens”
“They worked together,” Sergei Kabakovich, spokesman for the Commission of Inquiry, told AFP.
The commission of inquiry also announced that another investigation had been opened against Mr. Tikhaniowski. He is accused of inciting “social hostility” and of calling for violence against law enforcement officials.
Tichanovsky, 41, is a popular blogger who called Lukashenko a “cockroach.”
Statkevičius, 63, challenged Lukashenko in the 2010 presidential election and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Viktor Babaryka, a former banker regarded as Lukashenko’s strongest potential opponent in this year’s elections, was charged with financial crimes in June and also sent behind bars.
Moscow categorically denies that it has anything to do with recent events in Belarus.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the allegations that “the organizations are sending people from Russia to destabilize the situation in Belarus” are “only hints.”
Mr. Peskov emphasized that Russia and Belarus were “very close allies and partners”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the Russians worked for a Belarusian company and were in transit through Belarus to Istanbul.
Minsk’s version of events is absolutely unconvincing, the ministry emphasized.
“Attempting to present recent events such as foreign interference in the internal affairs of the republic is, to put it mildly, confusing,” the ministry said in a statement.
Moscow has called for an end to tensions in the run-up to the elections.
“Change mode”
Moscow is Minsk’s closest political and economic ally, but its relations have been strained for years.
In recent years, Minsk has come under increasing pressure to get closer to Moscow, but Lukashenko has rejected the idea of total unification.
Some analysts speculate that the arrest of Russian citizens was a carefully planned move, giving Lukashenko an excuse to deal even more harshly with the opposition. Meanwhile, others think that Moscow can really plan something.
Arseniy Sivicki, head of the Center for Strategic Research and Foreign Policy in Belarus, says he believes Russia may have sent mercenaries “to organize provocations on the eve of the elections.”
This may provide a “pretext for the Kremlin to intervene by force to change the regime,” he said.
Russian political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya, meanwhile, said the Kremlin did not appear to have abandoned its plans to unite the countries.
He joked that the Russian fighters had probably come to Minsk to “observe” the elections.
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