RTSat, 15 Aug 2020 11:19 UTC
© REUTERS / BelTA / Andrei Stasevich / Vasily Fedosenko(L) A protest in Minsk ; (R) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko
Mass anti-government protests in Belarus are actually a "color revolution" in action, and Russia may be the next target if the country fails to halt its progress, President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed.
Lukashenko, whose reelection for a sixth term last Sunday sparked mass protests over an alleged rigging of the vote, believes his detractors are unwitting agents of foreign puppeteers and need to be stopped.
"Don't you lull us with [talk about] peaceful action and demonstrations. We can see what is happening deep down," the Belarus leader said on Saturday at a government meeting, as cited by local media.
"We have read the guidelines on how to conduct color revolutions."
The president added that he should talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin, because "this threat is not against Belarus alone."
"...Defending Belarus today is nothing less than defending our entire space, the Union State [of Belarus and Russia], and an example for others... If Belarusians can't stand, the wave will flow there."
The proposed conversation with President Putin materialized later in the day. According to a Kremlin readout of the phone call, the two leaders expressed hope that Belarus' ongoing problems "will be solved soon" and that "destructive forces" wouldn't capitalize on them to hurt bilateral relations.Lukashenko is facing increasing pressure from the public after his government launched a police crackdown on the opposition in the wake of last week's vote. The approach backfired after evidence of police brutality fueled discontent and prompted more people to take the streets and demand the president's resignation.
© Sputnik / Viktor Tolchko
The demonstrations continued on Saturday, with thousands gathering in central Minsk to commemorate a protester who died amid the crackdown.
© Sputnik / Viktor Tolchko
Belarus police said that Aleksandr Traykovskiy died after an improvised explosive device went off in his hand before he could throw it at officers. Opposition forces question this version of events, however, suspecting instead that he may have been fatally injured by law enforcement.
Comment: MSN
reports that the EU is making moves to sanction Belarus:
European foreign ministers have agreed to move toward sanctions on Alexander Lukashenko's regime, after reports of the systematic abuse and torture of Belarusians swept up in the brutal crackdown on protests.
A diplomatic source said the EU's 27 foreign ministers had agreed that individuals responsible for the falsification of Sunday's presidential elections and subsequent violence against protesters should face asset freezes and travel bans into the bloc.
Officials will now be charged with drawing up a list of names for a legal agreement, which could happen in late August or September. "It was a surprising consensus," the diplomat said, while pointing out the 27 still had to reach consensus on the names.
© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Tomasz Jastrzębowski/Rex/Shutterstock
Ahead of the meeting Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Denmark had called for "restrictive measures against officials" responsible for the election result, which gave Lukashenko 80% of the vote following a contest the EU said was "neither free nor fair". Germany, Austria and Sweden had also voiced support for sanctions.
"We need additional sanctions against those who violated democratic values or abused human rights in Belarus," the head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, tweeted on Friday. "I am confident today's EU foreign ministers' discussion will demonstrate our strong support for the rights of the people in Belarus to fundamental freedoms & democracy."
The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said. "The brutality and the detention of peaceful protesters and journalists in Belarus isn't acceptable in the Europe of the 21st century. This is why we have to increase the pressure on those in power there."
EU sanctions must be agreed unanimously.
Hungary was considered the main obstacle to EU action after the country's prime minister, Viktor Orbán, visited Minsk in June and called for existing EU sanctions to be dropped.
The country did voice caution over new sanctions, as did Austria and Greece, but they did not oppose the political decision to move in that direction.
Budapest had already backed an EU statement on Tuesday that threatened sanctions against those "responsible for the observed violence, unjustified arrests and falsification of election results". Following talks with the Latvian foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, his Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjártó, said on Thursday that the two countries shared the same assessment of the situation.
EU sources suggested Hungary could exert influence in narrowing the number of individuals on the sanctions list.
The EU will also explore new funds to support civil society activists in Belarus, and a fact-finding mission to help mediate between the government and opposition.
The British government has not revealed if it supports sanctions against Belarus, but under the terms of the Brexit transition the UK would have to enforce any EU measures that came into force before the end of the year.
The foreign office minister Wendy Morton described the violence as "appalling" and called on the Belarusian authorities to release "all those unjustly detained" and engage in dialogue with the opposition.
An EU spokesperson for foreign affairs and security said the bloc was "regularly in touch with it likeminded partners", including the UK on shared concerns and priorities, but added: "It remains to be seen if there will be a specific contact after [Friday's foreign ministers] video conference."
EU foreign ministers are also expected to discuss how the EU could mediate between Lukashenko and protesters. Poland and the three Baltic states have called on the autocrat to "immediately initiate a dialogue with the Belarusian people".
The EU lifted most sanctions against Belarus in 2016 as it sought a rapprochement with Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1994.
The decision to ease sanctions followed the release of political prisoners and a downturn in Minsk's relations with the Kremlin, but one former presidential candidate, Andrei Sannikov, called it "a grave mistake".
The EU retains a ban on arms sales and sanctions on four individuals linked to the unsolved disappearances of opposition politicians, a journalist and businessman in 1999-2000.
Belarus is not the only crisis at the EU's border vying for attention. Ministers will discuss rising tensions in the eastern Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey and the political crisis in Lebanon following last week's catastrophic explosion.
France announced this week it was sending a naval frigate and two fighter jets to the eastern Mediterranean, amid a growing row between Athens and Ankara over offshore energy reserves.
Emmanuel Macron last month called for EU sanctions against Turkey over what he called "violations" of Greek and Cypriot sovereignty in their territorial waters. But that has met a cool response from Berlin, which has called for "de-escalation and solution-orientated dialogue". Brussels also stopped short of proposing sanctions in a recent statement on the "extremely worrying" situation.
Lukashenko has responded by
moving troops to the country's western borders.
Belarus has actually been surprisingly free of foreign interference, for decades, and especially in recent years as Lukashenko played it safe like Kazakhstan by courting east and west.
So what changed recently?
Obviously, Belarus' unique stance on Covid-19, which Lukashenko explicitly ignored and called out as a 'scam'. Because the 'system managers' require nothing less than total global submission, Lukashenko must go, and the Belarussian population must instead obey and fear The Covid...
See also:
Extensive foreign interference in Belarus attempts to 'destabilize' country, but it's not coming from Moscow - Russian MFA
Anyway, Belarus is a member of the EAEU, and not the EU. It is none of their business.