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Mass protests against incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko continued in Belarus on Sunday, with some 150 people arrested on the streets of Minsk.
– It was the third week in a row. There were tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people and they all really had the same demands: Lukashenko is enough now, you can go, says Bert Sunström, SVT correspondent at SVT’s Morgonstudion.
Meanwhile, Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin are planning a meeting to discuss the way forward for Belarus.
“Looking down at Lukashenko”
– The purpose is for Putin and Lukashenko to show that they are united. I suppose that the meeting will contain elements that Lukashenko does not like, namely that the union that has existed since 1999 will be strengthened and that it will be so in practice that Belarus becomes part of Russia and that Putin decides, says Bert Sundstörm .
How is the relationship between the leaders?
– Bad. Putin despises Lukashenko, whom he considers primitive. And Lukashenko doesn’t want Putin to decide what he considers his own country, says Bert Sundström.
– Lukashenko has tried to speak out against Putin and has said no to many things that Putin wants, so Putin believes that Lukashenko is problematic.
Mr. Lukashenko continues to have the support of the military, police and security forces, making things difficult for the protesters.
– As long as it has that power, there is no force strong enough to challenge it, says Bert Sundström.
