br23 blog - minsk, belarus

Of course, today there are fewer people on the square (est.7,000-10,000) but they seem to be more determined. They already put up 4 or 5 tents and said they’ll stay on the October square night and day, until the new election date is set, in July. Milinkevich said he does not recognize the official results […]

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Belarus’ protest at Prague’s Wenceslas Square (near Mustek) and in front of […]

[Minsk. October square. 22:00 Minsk time.]
[Est. 25,000 - 35,000 protesters showed up in Minsk center.]
Official results: Lukashenka will get 85%-90% of the vote.
Unofficial exit polls: Lukashenka got only about 45-47%.
And united opposition leader Milinkevich — about 30%.
Independent exit polls in Belarusian embassies across Europe:
Exit poll in Lithuania: 36% voted for Milinkevich.
Exit poll in Belgium: 62% […]

Yesterday police arrested 200,000 copies of newspaper “Tovarish” which contained Milinkevich’s election programme. Newspaper was printed in Russia and was brought to Belarus in a truck. When journalists were unloading the newspaper stacks into a private garage, a “vigilant” guard from that parking lot called the police to report “the crime.” They arrived in a […]

Today, the U.S. president George W. Bush filed a special report to U.S. Congress detailing personal fortune and income of the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenka. [1]. Bush was obliged to do it within the stipulations of the Belarus Democracy Act. It seems like a perfect timing from the White House to do this.
I’ve […]

Belarus’ KGB chief, Minister of internal affairs, and Prosecutor General had a joined press conference today. Among other things, KGB chief Sucharenka said (Reuters/Times):
“For those who take the risk of going out into the street and try to destabilise the situation, their actions will be qualified as terrorism. Demonstrators who try and destabilise the situation […]

RFE/RL: Belarusian police have arrested over 20 members of the campaign team of opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich in the past 24 hours.
If you add to that the other 15-20 people that were arrested yesterday, you’ll get a total of about 35-40 political activists that were arrested. All of them were charged with petty hooliganism on […]

There are five days left before the “elections,” but the early election is already in full swing. There are reports from the dorms that students are being forced to vote early. The reason? It appears that earlier votes are easier to falsify: you have plenty of time for manipulation. Those who vote early get 2 […]

The third annual session of Warsaw East European Conference will take place on July 5 — July 8, 2006, in Warsaw, Poland. There will be three round tables:

Police state in the process of system transition in postcommunist countries
Belarus – future of the society, nation and state
EU eastern policy – enlargement, partnership, borders, cooperation

In order to […]

This Ukrainian journalist was arrested in Minsk today. It would’ve been “business as usual” for our police forces, if not for one peculiar circumstance: she was arrested exactly at the moment when she was reporting live from the Milinkevich’s meeting for the Ukrainian 5th channel evening news. So her screams were heard by hundreds of […]