Protesters hug with the military in Independence Square, and Lukashenko asks citizens not to stick out into the streets

What happened on the sixth day of protests in Belarus

On August 14, peaceful protests in Belarus acquired an even more massive character. Throughout the country, citizens continued to line up on the streets in the "chain of solidarity" with the victims of police violence and arbitrariness. Dozens of state -owned enterprises joined the protests demanding the revision of the president’s elections, including the Minsk automobile and tractor factories, Belshina, Belaruskali, Grodno Nitrogen, Milavitsa and others. Workers still arrange rallies after shifts, but threaten with full -fledged strikes if their requirements are not fulfilled.

In the afternoon, participants in several spontaneous shares in Minsk, including employees of the Minsk Tractor Plant, moved by a march to the Independence Square to the Government House. There they intended to talk with the authorities, but no one went to them - the working day formally ended. When the square began to be filled with thousands of people, fighters of the internal troops lined up in front of the building around the perimeter and lowered shields to the ground. After that, demonstrators ran up to them and began to hug and give flowers. People sat on the square up to nine in the evening, chanting the slogans against the current president Alexander Lukashenko, after which they began to disperse. Participants in the action promised to come to the government of the government every day.

People continued to gather in other parts of Minsk, for example, near the KGB building and near the Pushkinskaya metro station, where one of the protests died . Everywhere they left flowers and lit candles. The police did not disperse and did not interfere with the holding of shares. In the regions, one of the most massive rallies was held in Grodno, where more than 20 thousand people gathered on the central square of Lenin. There, the chairman of the city executive committee, Mechislav Goy, came to the protesters and promised that all the detainees on protests would be released. According to the results of the rally, the participants demanded the resignation of the current authorities.

The Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported on the initiation of more than 90 criminal cases of riots on August 9-13, which the agency called "regulated shares with the participation of specially trained" fighters "." As a result of protests, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 121 police officer suffered. “Attempts to shake the situation and make discord in society were made by those who are indifferent to the interests of Belarus and its inhabitants. Obviously, the organizers used people as a consumable, ”the Ministry of Internal Affairs said.

Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars of the Republic, at which he announced that the organizers of the riots in the country were "people from abroad, people with a criminal past." “We came here from Poland, Holland, Ukraine, with this“ open Russia ”, Navalny and so on and so on. Already aggression began against the country, ”he said. The president advised citizens to "not lean out into the streets," since they are "used as cannon fodder." At the same time, he warned the security forces that law enforcement agencies should have a “certain brake” in relation to violators. “We are still the Slavs, if a person has already fallen and lies, he does not need to be beaten,” he summed up.

The presidential candidate from the united opposition Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (protesters consider it the winner of voting, and the CEC claims that she gained only 10 percent of the vote) announced the creation of a coordination council for a transference of power, and also called for organizing mass peaceful meetings in every Belarusian city on August 15 and 16.

On the evening of August 14, it became known about the liberation of 32 Russians detained in Belarus on the eve of the election. In Minsk, they were called the fighters of the Wagner PMC, who came to prepare riots. The Russians have already returned to their homeland. In Moscow, they say that they do not threaten any criminal prosecution.

Russian musicians, actors and other artists published an open letter in support of the Belarusian people. “We know that the presidential elections that passed on August 9 were carried out with many violations recorded by external observers, and the voices of the citizens of the republic were stolen,” the statement said. “We condemn and sharply oppose police violence against our own people and grieve for the victims of these monstrous actions.” The letter was signed by Yuri Shevchuk, Boris Grebenshchikov, Evgeny Fedorov, Ivan Alekseev (Noize MC), Elizabeth Girdimova (Monetochka), Aigel, Give Tank (!) And many others.

Alexander Filimonov