On August 11, mass protests against President Alexander Lukashenko took place in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, as well as in other cities across the country. The reason is vote-rigging in a disputed presidential election that took place on August 9.
According to preliminary estimates, announced by the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus, Mr. Lukashenko got 80% of the vote, while Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the top opposition candidate, received only 10%. If these results are true, it is still not clear: a) why do people continue protesting? b) why do people not take to the streets to support Lukashenko?
Back in 2011-2012 when people protested against Vladimir Putin, he managed to organize demonstrations in his support. In Minsk, however, we do not see any supporters of Alexander Lukashenko at all.
The response from the Belarusian authorities is very robust. Thus, police buses are running across the streets in Minsk and other Belarusian cities. Special police units dressed in dark uniform, masks covering their faces, and without any badges grab people without any reason or explanation and beat them brutally with truncheons and take them to prison. More than 5,000 protesters have been arrested for the three nights of clashes. The situation is widely covered on the Internet. For example, the traffic police stopped a group of young people on motorcycles and began to beat them on the heads and bodies as well as kicked those who were lying down. The young people did not resist, as clearly seen from a video.
In addition, the police acted violently towards accredited journalists. Thus, a journalist working for Belsat TV, a Polish satellite television channel aimed at Belarus, was kicked in the face and lost 4 teeth.
Police have fired rubber bullets and sound and flash grenades for the third night. In addition, citizens have had limited access to the Internet.
Yesterday, protests were less violent. It is quite clear that the percentage of people who are ready to go under rubber bullets and flashbangs or to be beaten for nothing is small. So far, the tough measures seem to be working.
For now, the situation is the following: Lukashenko obviously did not win the election. The official election results are clearly fabricated. But the Belarusians are not yet ready to give their lives for Lukashenko to step down.
The EU countries condemn the violence against protesters. 8 European countries have spoken out against violent acts in Belarus. The EU is preparing to hold a summit on this issue. At the same time, the leaders of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, and Venezuela congratulated Mr. Lukashenko on winning the presidential election.
