It's A Neighbourhood Cycle of Events
"We cannot calmly look on at how people are going to these places to hold rallies, with the same flags under which fascists organized the murders of Belarusians, Russians, Jews and others." "We cannot allow this, and I categorically warn that if order and calm is disturbed in these places, you will not be dealing with the police, but the army." Belarus Defence Minister, Viktor Khrenin
"It seems ... she [Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya] has started to make political statements, harsh ones, demanding walkouts, strikes, protests." Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister
"I am proud my nation heeded the call and came here to encourage Belarus." "We are not indifferent, and we will never be indifferent." Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda
"Navalny will survive poison attack, but be incapacitated for months as a politician." "If he gets through this unharmed, which we all hope, then he'll certainly be out of the political arena for at least one, two months." Jaka Bizili, founder, Cinema for Peace Foundation
 |
| Belarus: tens of thousands of protesters flood Minsk for second week |
Belarusians, it seems, feel they've been governed long enough by their leader Alexander Lukashenko after 26 years in office, urging him to vacate the presidency in favour of a more trustworthy opposition leader who, under threats, has taken refuge in neighbourly Lithuania, whose population is in complete sympathy with Belarusians. According to Mr. Lukashenko, the protesters are 'rats' and as such clearly beneath his notice, other than to promise that the fate designated for rats could be extended for them.
 |
And he is serious, as can be seen in his donning of body armour, grasping a rifle as huge nationwide demonstrations caused by a disputed August 9 election widely held to have been interfered with guarantee that the population has little intention of accepting the same old. Minsk streets have become an outraged symphony of red and white with flags carried by demonstrators in their opposition to Lukashenko, chanting for him to exit and for a new election to be arranged.
A crowd estimated at 200,000 rallied in central Minsk, the second such protester-dense demonstration of just how unloved the people of Belarus feel toward their Soviet-era ruler of long standing. "They have scattered like rats", sneered Lukashenko as the crowed began dispersing in the early evening. The "landslide" election victory of August 9 has created a landslide of negativity toward the man who, like his mentor Vladimir Putin, feels entitled to govern in perpetuity.
Official Russia is quite displeased at this show of ingratitude by an ignorant public. The Kremlin knows how to deal with its opposition, which shines a spotlight of wisdom on Ms. Tsikhanouskaya's decision to flee Belarus for Lithuania for the time being, out of reach of recriminations for her lack of loyalty to the enduring president, taking her cue from Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's current condition under close scrutiny in hospital post-poisoning.
And protests are not only taking place in Belarus; in sympathetic support, Lithuanians demonstrated their own version of condemning and rejecting a dictatorship by forming a human chain from central Vilnius to the Belarus border on Sunday -- 35,000 Lithuanians stretching 34 kilometres in solidarity with their neighbours.
 |
| Thousands formed a human chain on Sunday in Lithuania, in a display of solidarity with protesters in Belarus on the 31st anniversary of the famous Baltic Way protest. |
Labels: Baltic States, Belarus, Protests
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, August 25, 2020
<< Home