Belarus Leader Warns: Russia Provides ‘Security’ As Protests Grow

By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – Thousands of demonstrators in Belarus have retaken to the streets to demand that the nation’s authoritarian leader resigns after a presidential vote they claimed was rigged. In response, President Alexander Lukashenko declared that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had agreed to provide security assistance to restore order if Belarus requested.

Lukashenko’s comments came amid mounting pressure on the embattled head-of-state to step down. Thousands rally in the Belarusian capital Minsk. They gather at a makeshift memorial at the exact spot where 34-year-old protestor Alexander Taraikovsky died last Monday in clashes with police. Many bring flowers.

Belarusian police claim he died when an explosive device he intended to throw at police blew up in his hand. But his partner, Elena German, told reporters that when she saw his body in a morgue on Friday, his hands showed no damage. She claimed he had a perforation in his chest that she believes is a bullet wound.

People here express their anger over what they view as an authoritarian president’s ongoing crackdown on opposition demonstrators. Alexander Lukashenko. Some male protesters pulled off their shirts to show bruises they said came from police beatings. Others carried pictures of loved ones beaten so severely they could not attend the rally. Many also participated in Taraikovsky’s funeral.

There have been seven consecutive days of massive protests prompted by the country’s August 9 presidential election results. Officials claimed the 65-year-old Lukashenko won a sixth term in a landslide.

‘ELECTIONS MANIPULATED’

But opposition supporters believe the election figures were manipulated and say protesters have been beaten mercilessly by police since the vote. However, the harsh police crackdowns against the protesters, including the detention of some 7,000 people, have not quashed the most sustained anti-government movement since Lukashenko took power in 1994.

President Lukashenko spoke Saturday evening by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who allegedly promised him security guarantees. He also stressed that he had not fled the nation amid the unprecedented protests. “To start with, I’m still alive.” And Lukashenko added, “I haven’t fled abroad as some of our vaunted, ‘informed’ [compatriots] are drumming up that the President has fled the country and is now abroad.”

President Lukashenko also tried to play down workers’ strikes at two major Belarusian automotive plants and other companies supporting the protests over the presidential election results. He warned that everyone is fighting for markets to sell, for instance, tractors.

And the leader suggested that if the strikes continue, Belarus may not be able to “kick-start” its production.

INTERNATIONAL CONCERN

However, the European Union and the United States have urged him to respect the people’s will. Speaking in Poland, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed concern about the reported crackdown in protestors. “We’ve spent these last days consulting with our European partners.” He said he had personal meetings and by telephone “trying to understand precisely what’s happening,” said in comments monitored by Worthy News.

“The common objective is to support the Belarusian people to achieve their own sovereignty, their own freedom, to build out what you’re seeing happen in these protests. These people are demanding the simple things that every human being wants: the right to have determination for themselves about the nature of their government,” Pompeo added.

“And so we urge the leadership of Belarus to broaden the circle, as the foreign minister said, to engage with civil society in a way that reflects the central understandings that the Belarusian people are demanding.”
The international community is also considering stepping up sanctions against the authoritarian leader and other senior officials.

Exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya from Belarus had called for peaceful rallies across the country this weekend. And there are no signs yet that the mounting protests are losing momentum.

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