Yesterday, in one of the feeds, the news of the mass rally in Minsk was illustrated with a photograph, in which a burning car and a garbage can were visible in the background.
A person who has no idea about the parameters of what is happening in the Belarusian capital should have thought: "It has begun!"
It is difficult to say who and for what purpose put such an illustration: motives can be different.
But in fact, during the "March of Unity" there were no such excesses: no one burned anything and did not even think to do it.
In general, those who regarded the Sunday protest rally as a new round of confrontation between the opposition and the authorities in Belarus - and this is how the opposition leaders are trying to present it - should not rush to conclusions.
The protest movement simply walks in the same circle, already exhausted and losing the remnants of all meaning.
It is not for nothing that student youth has been joining its ranks in the last week, providing a mass audience for the information picture.
As my long-term acquaintance on the social network, the head of the Center for European Integration Yuri Shevtsov, writes on his Facebook page: “By the beginning of the school year, students from villages and small towns have pulled up.”
Older citizens, realizing the futility of festivities, prefer to return to household chores and concerns.
The actions took place not only in Minsk, people took to the streets in Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Mogilev, Molodechno, Baranovichi, Grodno, which is already a familiar format for such events.
In the capital, according to estimates of various Belarusian media, about 100 thousand people took part in the march.
Everything is as usual: detentions, slogans alienating Alexander Lukashenko from power and offering him various ways of withdrawing, a number of anti-Russian posters, and even more - expressing dissatisfaction with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The protesters ran into the Palace of Independence, after a while heavy rain began, some of them dispersed to their homes, the rest remained until the evening, it is not entirely clear why.
The palace guards looked at the dissenters, who, getting pretty wet, in turn, studied the local landscape.
That's all.
The likelihood that the confrontation will acquire some new forms is vanishing.
Yuri Shevtsov sums up the Sunday events as follows: “The protests have almost lost their political meaning.
No dynamics.
The crisis as a whole is over ”.
I contacted the political scientist by phone and asked for a detailed description of what was happening.
“This is what is called a flash mob,” Yuri told me.
Let me remind you that a flash mob (literally - "instant crowd") is a mass action, the participants of which come together in a public place, perform a ritual developed by the organizers, and then disperse.
Such an action does not imply any special consequences.
“The picture and the mood,” says Yuri Shevtsov.
Actually, "March of Unity" is a name in which the energy of the first weeks still glows.
To gallery page
Now the protesters have significantly lowered the level of conflict to a completely peaceful "we went out for a walk."
This is how they now describe what is happening: the protest degenerates into an event.
According to the Belarusian political scientist, there are several important signs indicating that the events have finally fizzled out.
Strikes at factories have dwindled, attempts to organize them in universities and schools have failed last week.
But the most important thing is that the Belarusian "Maidan", unlike the Ukrainian one, does not have its own location, within which the state could not control the situation.
No tents, no campfires, no onions and radishes.
“Not a single meter has been conquered, not a single administrative building has been captured,” my interlocutor explains.
And, among other things, again, in comparison with Viktor Yanukovych, who was panicky afraid that they would write about him in the media, Lukashenka is not afraid of anything.
He, according to Yuri Shevtsov, is confident in himself, he is not characterized by the weakness and emotional instability of the ex-president of Ukraine.
In all likelihood, the "picture and mood" will still surface for some time on the surface of the political life of Belarus.
But it is definitely not worth connecting with this even the scanty possibility of leaving the Belarusian ruler.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.