MINSK – A massive crowd of protesters demanding the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko went to the center of Belarus’s capital, Minsk, on Sunday for the second weekend in a historic display of opposition.
The protest turned out to be even bigger than the historic demonstrations that swam in central Minsk last Sunday, when more than hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets.
This time a colossal procession of Protestants marched back and forth from the central Independence Square of Minsk to a monument where Protestants gathered last week, filling the long avenues between their hours with a river of red and white: the colors of the opposition . Thousands more protested in other cities and towns in Belarus.
When evening came, thousands of Protestants marched peacefully around one of Lukashenko’s formal residences, stopping in front of a line of heavily armed riot police and armored vehicles.
Lukashenko himself made an appearance, landing at the complex, the Palace of Independence, in a helicopter.
In videos published by a social media channel linked to his press service, Lukashenko could be seen looking down after a small portion of the helicopter protests, telling the pilot to come closer and say, “They’re like rats running around.” After landing, he got out of the helicopter dressed in black and held an assault rifle, accompanied by his 15-year-old son, dressed in combat gear.
When the protesters left, Lukashenko was filmed, leaving behind the line of insurgent policemen, thanking the masked officials, in full black uniforms, who applauded him enthusiastically.
The massive, jubilant protests came after a week in which Lukashenko’s government appeared to re – evaluate itself, causing doubt among Protestants. Strikes at some of Belarus’s largest production plants appeared to be sputtering, and, with little sign of security force failure or bursts within Lukashenko’s elite, many feared people would not come out in protest this week.
But on Sunday, those doubts were washed away by the gigantic flood of Protestants filling central Minsk. The atmosphere was agitated, with many people expressing bewilderment at the scale of the protests.
“I was hoping for a lot of people, but not expecting that much,” said Daria Nesterenko, an English teacher at the club. “When there are so many together, we are not afraid. There is no fear.”
She said the day believed her, “We are ready for a longer fight. We are ready for a longer protest.”
“I feel more scared, of course, because there are a lot of rebellious police around us; but I also feel the power of our people,” said Natalya, 38. “For two weeks we protest every day and I believe we will win. “
The protests in Belarus lasted two weeks, triggered by a contested election in which Lukashenko – known as “Europe’s Last Dictator”, who has been in power for 26 years – won a landslide victory, beating his opponent by receiving more than 80% of the vote. The win drew criticism from citizens, who believe the election was rigged by Lukashenko’s team.
After a brutal collapse by security forces in the early days, balloons protested in the giant demonstration last weekend. The protests continued through the week, but in smaller numbers.
Before the demonstration – in a sign of the security forces’ efforts to reassert their grip – dozens of heavily armed insurgent police and masked troops with batons stood in the streets nearby. Authorities also closed metro stations to try to prevent people from entering the city and a local telephone provider said it was asking to slow down the internet in parts of Minsk.
But when the public swelled, the police did not enter. Troops simply blocked access to a World War II monument, known as the Stela – on a hill where Protestants had gathered last week – and stood behind large barbed wire fences.
On Independence Square and the avenues, authorities played classic Soviet novels songs about the loudspeaker systems set up on street lamps, perhaps to drown out the Protestants. Instead, people sang along. People shouted, “Leave, leave” and “Put Lukashenko in a paddle wagon.”
At night, Protestants had largely scraped the streets again.
The massive scale of the protests suggests that the efforts of authorities to stop them through tactics of deliberate arrests and threats – including Lukashenko’s decision to drive through military units – have not been successful.
However, strikes in factories across the country were reduced as management managed to burn the workers. A chairman of the strike committee at Minsk Auto Factory was arrested on Thursday and other activists were also questioned or detained during the week.
Lukashenko has spent the week accusing Protestants of being part of a plot by Western countries, making wild claims that an invasion of NATO troops is difficult. On Saturday, Lukashenko, once again in uniform, attended military exercises in western Belarus. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense warned that its troops were on high alert and troops may be used to put down “injustices”.
Lukashenko’s government has increasingly sought to portray the opposition as anti-Russian, accusing those against him of trying to pull the country away from Moscow and to the West. He crossed the line amid continuing fears among Protestants that the Kremlin could intervene to save Lukashenko, her long-though-often-difficult-partner.
Lukashenko admitted this week that Russian journalists from state television had flown to Minsk to replace workers who had attacked Belarus’ Belarusian television broadcaster.
On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized Belarus’s main opposition leader, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, saying Western countries were pressuring them to continue their political activities, noting that they had begun speaking in English.
Tikhanovskaya remains in Lithuania, where she fled after the controversial elections following threats from the authorities. She called on Lukashenko to negotiate a peaceful handover of power with the opposition and formed a coordinating board to lead the effort – but so far Lukashenko has rejected any dialogue.
“It is high time for our people to overcome their fears, to step over all of this, to step over their fears and fight for their freedom. Because they are ready for these changes,” Tikhanovskaya told ABC News in an interview this week.
In Lithuania on Sunday evening, tens of thousands of people formed a human chain from the capital Vilnius, to the Belarusian border, to show solidarity with the protests. The chain was intended to echo the human chains that were formed in the fall of the Soviet Union, when 2 million people joined forces to completely encircle the Baltic states in 1989 as a peaceful protest demanding independence. .
.
