Anger does not fall in Belarus.

Police announced on Sunday (September 13th) that they had made around 250 arrests during the weekly demonstration organized by the opposition in Minsk to protest against the fraudulent re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.

"About 250 people have been arrested in different parts of the capital [for] using flags and other symbols [of the opposition and] signs with offensive messages," the interior ministry said in a statement.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters march through the streets of the Belarusian capital, heading towards the presidency building, despite a large police deployment.

Already on Saturday, a peaceful rally of women took place in the center of Minsk.

Some banged on saucepans with ladles, others chanted "Bring back our Macha", referring to the diminutive of one of the leaders of the opposition, Maria Kolesnikova.

The 38-year-old woman was jailed this week after resisting forced eviction by tearing up her passport.

Scuffles broke out in the central Place de la Liberté, when masked and black-hooded men tried to arrest demonstrators who pushed them back, according to images broadcast by the Belsat television channel and the independent media Tut.By.

An unprecedented protest movement

The re-election on August 9 to the presidency of this former Soviet republic of Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, with a score of 80%, gave rise to an unprecedented protest movement in Belarus, to denounce a fraudulent ballot.

>> See also on France24.com Belarus: three women in Lukashenko's sights

All Belarusian opposition figures, often women, in this historic protest marked by record demonstrations every Sunday in Minsk, are now either in exile or in prison.

Challenged in the street for more than a month, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will be in Russia on Monday to meet his counterpart, Vladimir Poutine;

the Kremlin affirming that the "integration" of the two countries will be on the program of the discussions.

With AFP

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