Faced with the challenge, Alexander Lukashenko is still showing himself as inflexible and threatening. The Belarusian president was shown arriving on Sunday evening, in a bulletproof vest and a Kalashnikov in hand, at his residence in Minsk located not far from the opposition protests. In the pictures, the assault rifle does not appear to be loaded.
#Belarus Lukashenko visits with a weapon (without magazine) the security forces protecting the presidential palace in Minsk, as if the regime fears a coup tonight, # BelarusProtest pic.twitter.com/WOXKfYZMZT
- cedric mas (@CedricMas) August 23, 2020Opponents "fled like rats"
The video, posted on Telegram by the Belarusian Presidency, shows Alexander Lukashenko, 65, descending from a helicopter after landing on the territory of his official residence, after taking a tour with his son Nikolai, 15, at above the place where opposition supporters had mobilized en masse in the afternoon. "They fled like rats", launches the Belarusian president, in another video shot during his helicopter flight, while there were no more protesters left in the evening on Independence Avenue, no start of the Sunday demonstration.
In the afternoon, the mobilization of the opposition on the avenue and the place of Independence, as well as on the adjacent streets, seemed equivalent to that of the past week, when some 100,000 people took to the streets from Minsk on August 16. In the evening, with the rain, the protesters dispersed peacefully after marching through the city center.
Police: „Dear citizens, this is an unauthorized mass meeting ...“ But people dont care, even the street which leads to the square is PACKED. pic.twitter.com/8W1MCElJZt
- Paul Ronzheimer (@ronzheimer) August 23, 2020The mobilization against the strong man of Belarus has not weakened since the announcement of the results of the August 9 ballot which gave him the winner with 80% of the vote.
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