150 thousand Belarusians rally against Lukashenko. He (with an automatic machine in his hands) calls them rats, and the security forces - handsome

The 15th day of protests in Belarus. Main

In Minsk, a new action was held against Alexander Lukashenko . According to RT and Belteleradiocompany , about 20 thousand people took part in it, according to Medusa - 150 thousand (per share a week ago, which became the most massive in the modern history of Belarus, at least 200 thousand inhabitants of Minsk came ). Protesters gathered in Independence Square, thenmoved to the stele "Minsk-Hero City." The memorial was surrounded by the military personnel for barbed wire: the Minister of Defense of Belarus, Viktor Khrenin , said that the army would protect the monuments to the dead in the Great Patriotic War from protesters. Some participants in the rally began to approach the soldiers, but the member of the headquarters of Viktor Babariko Maria Kolesnikova and the confidant of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya Olga Kovalkovapov asked everyone to move away from the stele.

The protesters were members of the coordination council of the opposition . They stated that the Council intends to seek all deputies of local councils and all deputies of the lower house of the Belarusian parliament, who did not express their opinion on what was happening in the country, as well as initiate a referendum on the return of the 1994 Constitution, which limited the number of deadlines of the president.

Some of the protesters reached the Palace of Independence - the working residence of Alexander Lukashenko . Nexta, which, however, soon changed his mind , called for him to go to him to go to him. But several thousand people reached the palace and stopped opposite the cordon from employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and special equipment. Between the protesters and the security forces were played by musicians, the participants of the action sang along with them. At this time, in Minsk, the Internet problems began (the A1 operator will later explain this by “the requirement of state bodies in connection with the ensuring national security”). After about an hour, the protesters went back towards the center and gradually began to diverge. The cordon near the Independence Palace was removed , the detentions were not reported.

Lukashenko himself flew to the Independence Palace by helicopter. With a machine gun in hand. When the protesters stood near the Palace of Independence, a presidential helicopter sat next to him. The media and opposition telegram channels suggested that he arrived for the evacuation of Lukashenko. But after the protesters left , the telegram channel of the press service of the President of the “Poole of the First” posted a video where Lukashenko leaves the helicopter next to the Independence Palace. In the second video, which was published by the Pool of the First, it is noticeable that Lukashenko is dressed in a body armor, and in his hands he has an automatic machine ( according to Novaya Gazeta, this is AKS-74U). Next to him, his son Nikolai is in military equipment.

The presidential press service published several more videos with Lukashenko. On one of them, he compares the protesters with rats. In the video, Lukashenko sits in a helicopter and commands to fly closer to the winners Avenue, where the protesters gathered, after which he says: "How the rats fled." Behind the scenes, such a dialogue is heard: "Where are they?" - “They ran. They learned that you will be there . ” Presumably, the first replica belongs to Nikolai Lukashenko, the second - Alexander Lukashenko.

Also, the Pool of the First posted a video in which Lukashenko goes for a cordon near the Palace of Independence and thanks employees of law enforcement agencies. “Guys, thank you! You are handsome! We will deal with them, ”Lukashenko promises. “We are to the end,” the security forces tell him.

Spokesman Lukashenko Natalya Eismont said that the protesters wanted to storm the Palace of Independence, but were frightened and fled. According to her, Lukashenko worked all day in a situational center in the Independence Palace; He was also his youngest son, 15-year-old Nikolai. “When the so -called protesters went, one might say, for a kind of assault on the building, at these minutes the head of state was also in the palace. However, probably, we can say that the boldness of the protesters was enough for a short while. Seeing what could happen, these people quickly turned around and literally ran in the opposite direction, ”Eismont said. After that, Lukashenko called a helicopter and flew around the city, and, returning to the Palace of Independence, thanked the security forces who guarded the building, added Aismont.

Protests and solidarity with protesters were held not only in Minsk. Thousands of people took to the streets in all regional cities of Belarus: Brest, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Grodno, Gomel. Solidarity shares with protesting Belarusians were organized in Kiev, Warsaw, St. Petersburg and Moscow (at least 11 people were detained near the Embassy of Belarus). Riga residents lined up in a live chain with a white-red-white flag in the support of protests in Belarus; The action was attended by the President of Latvia, Egils Levits. In Lithuania, thousands of people formed a living chain from Vilnius to the Belarusian border; She was joined by the former Lithuanian President Dalya Grybauskaite. The action was timed to the 31st anniversary of the Baltic Way . Earlier, Lukashenko said that the participants in the action would build a chain from Vilnius to Kiev, and promised to “categorically prevent” this.

This is the 15th day of protests in Belarus. They began on the evening of August 9, after the end of the vote in the presidential election. According to official figures, Alexander Lukashenko won the election for the sixth time with a result of 80%, but few people believed in this data. In the early days, employees of the power structures harshly dispersed the protesters. About seven thousand people were detained - not only participants in shares, but also random passers -by. Several hundred suffered from the use of strength and special equipment, many were beaten after detention. From the beginning of the political crisis , six people from different regions of Belarus have died. Violence from the employees of law enforcement agencies only enhanced protests, after which the Belarusian police abandoned the tactics of power overclocking, and the Minister of Internal Affairs apologized to those who "accidentally fell under the hand." At the same time, Alexander Lukashenko flatly refused to hold new elections and repeatedly called protests by an attempt by Western countries to “tilt” Belarus and through the change of power to quarrel with Russia.

Olga Korelina